Court Opinion

ID: 9536695
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:05:24.997667+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:55:03.312289
License: Public Domain

STRUCKMEYER, Justice
(dissenting).
I am unable to concur in the disposition of these cases because I do not think that the Attorney General is authorized to either initiate or maintain these actions.
The Constitution of this State establishes the executive offices of the Governor, Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Treasurer, Attorney General and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Article 5, Section 1, and provides that the duties of the Attorney General “shall be as prescribed by law.” Article 5, Section 9. Among the duties of the Attorney General prescribed by statute is the prosecution and defense of causes to which the State is a party. *336Section 4-607, A.C.A.1939, as amended [A.R.S. § 41-193]. Plainly the statute contemplates that the Attorney General act as the legal representative of the people; so that, whenever the State is a party to a lawsuit, it is the Attorney General who must act as its lawyer. While there may he instances in which the Attorney General must exercise the faculty of judgment which the State as an artificial entity is unable to exercise and determine when an action should be instituted in the name of the State, I do not believe Section 4-607 was designed or intended to authorize the Attorney General to exercise the power of discretion placed by the Constitution and applicable statutes in other executive and administrative officers. Nor that it should be so construed that the ultimate power to decide matters pertaining to their offices is shifted to the Attorney General thereby giving him the right to supersede their judgments.
By statute the Superintendent of Liquor Licenses and Control has the duty of administering the Spirituous Liquor Act. He is not permitted the right of appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court. He may bring certiorari, Duncan v. Truman, 74 Ariz. 328, 248 P.2d 879. However, whether certiorari or any other legal action should or ought be taken is wholly within his sound discretion and could not be compelled by mandamus. Adams v. Bolin, 77 Ariz. 316, 271 P.2d 472. The determination of a discretionary matter by a public officer must be made in the light of the intimate knowledge of the needs, concerns and interests of the State, and upon the mature consideration and judgment of the officer having this knowledge and charged with the duty of administering the office. Since it is the Superintendent who has the duty of administering the Spirituous Liquor Act and he is the responsible officer charged with the obligation of exercising the judgment and discretion necessary to the proper functioning of the office, these actions should be dismissed as an attempted usurpation of the duties of the Superintendent of Liquor Licenses and Control.
While the majority opinion disavows the establishment of a rule by which the Attorney General can supersede the policies and decisions of various departments of government, this is exactly what has occurred here. The Attorney General has superseded the judgment of the Superintendent of Liquor Licenses and Control. Moreover, he is usurping the powers and duties of the office of Governor of this State. Were it possible to say that the Superintendent has abused his discretion in failing to litigate in this Court the jurisdiction of the superior courts, or even that the judgment of the Superintendent is so unsound as to require corrective action, then the Constitution and statutes of this State specifically charge the Governor with the obligation of taking appropriate action.
By Article 5, Section 4 of the Constitution it is provided: “The governor * * *
*337shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Among the powers and duties prescribed by statute the Governor “shall supervise the official conduct of all executive and ministerial officers;” and “He shall see that all * * * duties thereof (are) performed, or, in default thereof, apply such remedy as the law allows;” Section 4 — 101, A.C.A.1939 [A.R.S. § 41-101]. What official action the Governor might find necessary to take, if any, and what remedy the Governor might be disposed to pursue if in his discretion such were necessary, even to the extent of requiring the Attorney General to handle an action upon the relation of the Governor, is not necessary to be determined here. However, it is clear that it is the duty of the Governor and not the Attorney General to protect the interests of the people and the State by taking care that the laws are faithfully executed and in his sound discretion and in the manner that he deems advisable to that end supervise the official conduct of other executive and ministerial officers. The people through the Constitution and statutes have clothed the Governor with this power even to the extent of authorizing him to remove the Superintendent for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance, misfeasance, or nonfeasance in office,” Section 72-102, A. C.A.1939, as amended [A.R.S. § 4 — 111]. I therefore am compelled to the conclusion that the Attorney General is not the proper person to decide the course of action which should be pursued by another public officer, nor should he be allowed to maintain a lawsuit at his own instigation under the cloak and in the guise that the action is by the State of Arizona in order to accomplish the same result.
WINDES, J., concurs in the dissent of Justice STRUCKMEYER.