Court Opinion

ID: 9600581
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:28:28.868931+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:20.664692
License: Public Domain

Dore, J.
(dissenting) — I concur in much of Justice Stafford's dissent, and add the analysis set forth below.
On August 24, 1982, the Chief Justice signed an injunction order on the "pay lag" executive order saying at page 1
the respondents are enjoined from implementing their announced plans to delay payment of salaries of state employees and officers, described in the pleadings as the lagged payroll plan.
The order also provided that the injunction should remain in effect until further order of this court.
After the State moved for reconsideration, the majority of this court dissolved the Chief's injunction on September 8, 1982, saying in its order at page 1
*903In light of the importance of the issues and the necessity for a speedy decision so as to minimize any consequential loss to either or both parties, this matter is remanded to the Thurston County Superior Court with directions that the trial be held within 30 days of this order.
The State argued that the request for the injunction claiming irreparable harm brought about by missed house and car payments and attendant penalties for late payments was too generalized and not documented by individual affidavits of State employees. The State also stressed that the trial judge had found the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) would, in all probability, not prevail on the merits.
These same arguments were made to this court in the case of Dore v. Kinnear, 79 Wn.2d 755, 489 P.2d 898 (1971). In that case, 27,000 taxpayers requested a preliminary injunction enjoining the State and County from using new appraisals two or three times the existing valuations for real estate tax purposes. General affidavits signed by the taxpayers' attorney were filed claiming such taxes would be confiscatory and that hundreds of taxpayers might lose their homes. This court did not request or require individual affidavits from such property owners to illustrate their potential damages, but reasoned that if 27,000 property owners had their property assessed at two or three times present valuation, taxes would be increased two or three times, and that any average person would conclude that such taxpayers would be irreparably harmed.
The taxpayers' action in Kinnear had been dismissed with prejudice at the superior court level, whereas the trial judge here merely found that it was unlikely that the WFSE would prevail on the merits.
The Supreme Court, in Kinnear, in an effort to protect the taxpayers within their inherent equity powers, enjoined the collection of $6.6 million in taxes, even though the injunction had been requested on a case that already had been tried on the merits in the trial court and lost.
The subject record shows that a great number of the *904more than 60,000 state employees would probably be substantially damaged by the Governor's order which plucked 1 month's salary out of each state employee's pocket for the initial year. There was no need for each of them to sign individual affidavits to show irreparable damages. We surely could take judicial notice that state employees on tight budgets would be irreparably damaged if they lost their cars, homes and other essentials by being unable to meet their contracted obligations on the first of the month.
I am persuaded by the reasoning of this court in Dore v. Kinnear which, in granting a temporary injunction dated March 29, 1971, stated:
It appearing from affidavits, briefs, records presented, and oral argument that the increased assessed values determined in 1970 for taxes due and payable in 1971, as established by the revaluation program then conducted in King County by the Jacobs Company, Inc., and embracing only some 27,000 taxable units out of a total of 450,000 taxable units within such county, may present significant issues of constitutional and statutory law; and
Whereas, pending resolution of these issues, the proper amount of taxes due and payable by taxpayers affected by said revaluation program remains uncertain; and
Whereas, the Court has inherent authority to exercise its equity powers by temporary injunction to preserve the status quo pending a final determination on the merits, and a majority of the members of the Court having, after full consideration, determined that such a temporary injunction is appropriate under the particular circumstances of this case, and should issue; Now, Therefore,
It Is Hereby Ordered that, conditioned on appellants filing in this Court a bond in the amount of $500 to pay damages and costs which may accrue to the respondents by reason of this order, respondents are temporarily enjoined during the pendency of this appeal from requiring, as a condition of acceptance, increases in the amount of property taxes due to the said revaluation conducted by Jacobs Company, Inc.
(Italics mine.)
*905In the subject case, the State produced affidavits that after the injunction was dissolved, the pay lag bill couldn't be implemented until the first of the next month or October 1, 1982. As the court provided that the trial should be commenced no later than October 9, 1982, no irreparable harm would have been suffered by the State from a continuance of the injunction for another 9 days and/or until the trial on the merits could be determined.
Based on our holding and rationale of the court in Dore v. Kinnear in granting a temporary injunction to taxpayers on a case lost at the superior court level, and our inherent authority to exercise equity powers in the interests of justice, I agree with Justice Stafford that the temporary injunction should have been continued until the trial on the merits, which was ordered to be commenced within 30 days after September 9, 1982.