Court Opinion

ID: 9709312
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:44:42.252904+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:16:31.578352
License: Public Domain

MORRIS, Judge
(concurring specially)-
I concur in the opinion prepared by Judge SATHRE. Bryan v. Miller, 73 N.D. 487, 16 N.W.2d 275, and Nomland Motor Company v. Alger, 77 N.D. 29, 39 N.W.2d 899, have been cited as supporting the argument that Section 30-2623, NDRC 1943 is unconstitutional. They deal exclusively with the jurisdiction of the justice court but they do contain language which expresses a line of reasoning that is not in accord with our conclusion that Section 30-2623 is constitutional. Those cases involve a different statute and are not in conflict with this decision but the insistence with which they are stressed prompts me to express what I believe to be further cogent reasons why the decision in this case is correct.
In addition to the general presumption that enactments of the legislature are constitutional we have in this case two additional rules that support constitutionality, The first is that long acquiescence in the constitutionality of a statute may properly be considered in determining its validity in a doubtful case. The second rule is that where the highest court of the state has held a statute constitutional and the statute is subsequently attacked upon identical grounds the statute will not be held invalid except for the most convincing and compelling reasons.
In this state the practice of trying a case completely anew in the district court upon an appeal from the county court is innate. It was provided for in Section 326 of the Territorial Probate Code and was adopted in substantially its present form by Section 6275 of the Revised Codes of 1895. A trial anew in the manner prescribed by Section 30-2623 has been the practice generally accepted and followed by the bench and bar since statehood. A number of cases that were tried anew have been appealed from the district court to this court without challenge to the method of trial in the court below, among the more recent being: In re Glavkee’s Estate, 76 N.D. 171, 34 N.W.2d 300; In re Bratcher’s Estate, 76 N.D. 194, 34 N.W.2d 825; Stormon v. Weiss, N.D., 65 N.W.2d 475; Bender v. Bender, N.D., 72 N.W.2d 220.
The widespread acquiescence in not only the existence of the statute in question but in its general use throughout practically the entire history of the state by the legislature, the people, the lawyers, and the courts weighs in favor of its constitutionality. Linck v. City of Litchfield, 141 Ill. 469, 31 N.E. 123; Goodall v. Henkel, 60 Mich. 382, 27 N.W. 556; Miller v. Enterprise Canal & Land Co., 142 Cal. 208, 75 P. 770, 100 Am.St.Rep. 115; County Commissioners of Somerset County v. Pocomoka Bridge Co., 109 Md. 1, 71 A. 462, 16 Ann. Cas. 874 and note; 11 Am.Jur., Constitutional Law, Sections 81 and 83; Kyle v. Abernathy, 46 Colo. 214, 102 P. 746.
The acquiescence heretofore discussed has had one interruption as disclosed by the opinion of this court in the case of In re Peterson’s Estate, 22 N.D. 480, 134 N.W. 751, when the statute under consideration, then Section 7985, Revised Codes of 1905, was held constitutional against the identical challenge now urged. That decision was rendered January 11, 1912, and stood without being questioned in this court for over 44 years. In that case the question of constitutionality then and now at bar was considered and discussed in both the original *684opinion and in an opinion filed on petition for rehearing wherein the same arguments are considered that are now made in this court.
In passing upon the constitutionality of a statute relating to the publication of a notice permitting redemption of real estate sold at tax sale the supreme court of Montana said:
“The general rule is that when the highest court of a state has construed a constitutional provision, the rule of stare decisis — that a question once deliberately examined and decided should be considered as settled — applies, unless it is demonstrably made to appear that the construction manifestly is wrong. Decisions construing the Constitution should be followed, in the absence of cogent reasons to the contrary, as it is of the utmost importance that our organic law be of certain meaning and fixed in interpretation.” State ex rel. Kain v. Fischl, 94 Mont. 92, 20 P.2d 1057, 1059.
In Walling v. Brown, 9 Idaho 740, 76 P. 318, 2 Ann.Cas. 720, it is said:
“When the beneficial results to be obtained by a departure from the construction and interpretation placed by this court upon a constitutional or statutory provision will not greatly exceed the disastrous and evil effects likely to flow therefrom, the court will decline to reopen those questions, where rights and interests have become settled under such decisions, and they have been acquiesced in by the Legislature and the people for any reasonable period of time.”
Both of the foregoing quotations appear in the more recent case of Scott v. Gossett, 66 Idaho 329, 158 P.2d 804.
In State ex rel. Pitts v. Nashville Baseball Club, 127 Tenn. 292, 154 S.W. 1151, 1154, Ann.Cas. 1914B, 1243, it is said:
“Decisions construing the Constitution or acts of the Legislature should be followed, in the absence of cogent reasons to the contrary, inasmuch as it is of the utmost importance that our organic and statute law be of certain meaning and fixed interpretation.”
This quotation is repeated in Humphries v. Manhattan Savings Bank & Trust Co., 174 Tenn. 17, 122 S.W.2d 446. To the same effect Daniel’s Administrator v. Hoofnel, 287 Ky. 834, 155 S.W.2d 469.
For reasons herein set forth as well as those expressed in the majority opinion I concur in the affirmance of the judgment of the district court.
I am authorized to state that Judge JOHNSON concurs herein.