Court Opinion

ID: 9782302
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 18:18:05.164807+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:40.713022
License: Public Domain

Justice SCHROEDER
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the Court’s decision in parts III C and D of the opinion. Precedent should be followed when there is reliance on it and it leads to rational results. When it is neither relied upon nor leads to rational results, modification is in order. Following precedent the Court has parsed this case and determined that a litigant who breached his fiduciary duty and has had a punitive damage award entered against him can recover attorney fees because the part of his case upon which he prevailed was a commercial transaction under Idaho Code section 12-120(3)'. On the other hand the parties *547who prevailed on their counterclaim may not recover attorney fees “because the gravamen of that claim was a tort.” The wrong of a fiduciary breach leading to a punitive damage award has been compounded to a degree that the Court should reexamine the authority that leads to this result. All claims, commercial and tort, in this case arose out of a course of dealings on the same development. The facts involving the complaint and the counterclaim are in reality inseparable. The Court should examine the case in that light and determine either that there was no prevailing party or that the Grabows prevailed. The person who breached his fiduciary duty and had a punitive damage award should not recover attorney fees.
This Court has the discretion to examine its prior authority and modify it to reach a just result when the modification will not undercut an interpretation that has been relied upon. It is doubtful fiduciaries have developed an expectation that they can violate their duties to the degree shown in this case and still obtain attorney fees when the principal prevails on that claim. The district court should be relieved of the responsibility of entering an order with the unjust consequences apparent in this case. This Court should relieve itself of the burden of an unjust result and deny the breaching fiduciary fees.