Court Opinion

ID: 9559660
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:33:17.179949+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:28.954987
License: Public Domain

Justice KIRSHBAUM
dissenting.
The majority states that “the requirements of due process of law” measure State Farm’s right of access to the judicial process as established by article II, sections 3 and 6, of the Colorado Constitution and ultimately concludes that the compulsory arbitration provisions of section 10-4-708(1.5), 4A C.R.S. (1990 Supp.), satisfy that standard. Because legislation restricting the constitutionally guaranteed right of access to courts to protect property interests abridges a fundamental right, requiring heightened scrutiny analysis, and because the judicial review provisions of the statute fail to satisfy either strict scrutiny or due process standards, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s conclusion.
I
Questions concerning the scope and application of the access to courts provisions of article II, section 6, have been considered by this court in various contexts. We have found substantive and procedural innovations created by the General Assembly in our Workers’ Compensation Act to be compatible with that section. Curtiss v. GSX Corp. of Colorado, 774 P.2d 873 (Colo.1989); O’Quinn v. Walt Disney Prods., Inc., 177 Colo. 190, 493 P.2d 344 (1972). We have held that in special circumstances a trial court may enjoin an individual from instituting litigation pro se without violating right of access standards. Board of County Comm’rs v. Winslow, 706 P.2d 792 (Colo.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1018, 106 S.Ct. 1204, 89 L.Ed.2d 317 (1986); People v. Spencer, 185 Colo. 377, 524 P.2d 1084 (1974). Most recently in Firelock v. District Court, 776 P.2d 1090, 1096 (Colo.1989), we rejected a challenge based on article II, section 6, to provisions of the Colorado Mandatory Arbitration Act, §§ 13-2-401 to 409, 6A C.R.S. (1987), requiring compulsory arbitration of claims as a condition to the initiation of litigation of civil cases wherein the amount in controversy did not exceed the sum of $50,000. In view of the posture of those cases,1 we were not required to articulate the nature of the right of access guarantee of article II, section 6, as it relates to the rights specified by article II, section 3. This case requires such analysis.
Article II, section 3, provides as follows:
Inalienable rights. All persons have certain natural, essential and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; and of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.
Colo. Const, art. II, § 3.
Article II, section 6, provides as follows:
*542Equality of justice. Courts of justice shall be open to every person, and a speedy remedy afforded for every injury to person, property or character; and right and justice should be administered without sale, denial or delay.
Colo. Const, art. II, § 6. Article II, section 3, enumerates specific rights guaranteed to all Coloradoans, one of which is the right to acquire, possess and protect property. It is not insignificant that the section captioned “inalienable rights” constitutes the first substantive provision of the Colorado bill of rights. See Heath v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 123 N.H. 512, 518, 464 A.2d 288, 294 (1983). Those who drafted our constitution obviously considered such “essential and inalienable” rights to be of profound, if not “fundamental,” significance.
Article II, section 6, ensures that judicial forums will remain accessible for the provision of speedy remedies for injuries to “person, property or character.” As the majority notes, a great majority of state constitutions contain similar language. Maj.Op. at 535. See Francis E. McGovern, The Variety, Policy and Constitutionality of Product Liability Statutes of Repose, 30 Am.U.L.Rev. 579, 615 n. 218 (1981). The presence of such a provision in our constitution, at so prominent a position in article II’s catalog of rights, reflects a conscious decision by the framers of that document to depart significantly from the federal constitutional model as well as from constitutional models of several other states. It is precisely the absence of any such express guarantee in the United States Constitution that has engendered the broad due process tests characteristic of decisions of federal courts in right to access cases.
It must also be observed that the right to access provision was adopted even though a separate due process clause prohibiting unreasonable governmental deprivation of property rights was also incorporated into our bill of rights. Colo. Const., art. II, § 25. It seems reasonable to conclude that the framers intended some different, if not greater, protection of the property rights of individuals by the provisions of section 6 than were accorded by the provisions of section 25. See Chambers v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co., 207 U.S. 142, 148, 28 S.Ct. 34, 35, 52 L.Ed. 143 (1907); Berry v. Beech Aircraft Corp., 717 P.2d 670, 675 (Utah 1985). As the Supreme Court stated in Chambers,
The right to sue and defend in the courts is the alternative of force. In an organized society it is the right conservative of all other rights, and lies at the foundation of orderly government. It is one of the highest and most essential privileges of citizenship, and must be allowed by each State to the citizens of all other States to the precise extent that it is allowed to its own citizens.
207 U.S. at 148, 28 S.Ct. at 35.
Because the United States Constitution contains no express right of access guarantee, federal courts have by necessity addressed issues with respect to access to state courts in the framework of due process analysis. Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 91 S.Ct. 780, 28 L.Ed.2d 113 (1971); Nordgren v. Milliken, 762 F.2d 851 (10th Cir.1985); McKay v. Hammock, 730 F.2d 1367 (10th Cir.1984); Ryland v. Shapiro, 708 F.2d 967 (5th Cir.1983); Silver v. Cormier, 529 F.2d 161 (10th Cir.1976). The right itself, however, is firmly rooted in the right of petition guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unltd., 404 U.S. 508, 513, 92 S.Ct. 609, 613, 30 L.Ed.2d 642 (1972); Nordgren, 762 F.2d at 853; Ryland, 708 F.2d at 971. The right has also been defined as one of the privileges and immunities guaranteed to all citizens by article 4 of the United States Constitution. Chambers, 207 U.S. at 148, 28 S.Ct. at 35; Nordgren, 762 F.2d at 853; Ryland, 708 F.2d at 971. As the Ryland court stated, the right is “one of the fundamental rights protected by the Constitution.” Ryland, 708 F.2d at 971. See Boddie, 401 U.S. at 378, 91 S.Ct. at 786; McKay, 730 F.2d at 1367; Silver, 529 F.2d at 163.
State courts assessing the significance of particular right to access provisions contained in their state constitutions have predictably described the characteristics of the *543right itself in various ways. Some have emphasized its historical roots in sections of the Magna Carta. Lankford v. Sullivan, Long & Hagerty, 416 So.2d 996, 999 (Ala.1982); State ex rel. Cardinal Glennon Mem. Hosp. v. Gaertner, 583 S.W.2d 107, 110 (Mo.1979). In a thorough and thoughtful opinion declaring a portion of a statute of repose for products liability cases to be violative of state constitutional open access guarantees, the Utah Supreme Court articulated a two-part test seeking to balance the legislative authority to alter rights and remedies with the fundamental guarantee of access to courts contained in Utah’s constitution. Berry, 717 P.2d at 680.
I find persuasive those decisions that conclude that right to access guarantees must be considered in relationship to the significance of the right advanced by the party seeking such access. See Wayne v. Tennessee Valley Auth., 730 F.2d 392, 403 (5th Cir.1984); Woods v. Holy Cross Hosp., 591 F.2d 1164, 1173 n. 16 (5th Cir.1979). If the underlying right is a fundamental right, the right of access itself must be fundamental. Such analysis requires careful evaluation of issues and facts on a case-by-case basis. However, it rejects the conclusion that the right of access guarantee is merely a due process guarantee—a conclusion that in this jurisdiction ignores the separate due process guarantee provided by our constitution and tends to reduce the language of article II, section 6, to a mere statement of principle. That analytical framework also avoids many of the problems perceived to result from a conclusion that the right of access is in all contexts fundamental.
In the context of this case, the interest advanced by State Farm—the right to protect its property interests under particular contracts—must be deemed one of those fundamental rights secured by article II, section 3, of the Colorado Constitution. We have recently noted that at least some of the inalienable rights enumerated in that section are fundamental in nature. See People in re J.M., 768 P.2d 219, 221 (Colo. 1989). Surely the right to protect one’s property interests from conduct by private parties allegedly appropriating those interests is fundamental to our concept of ordered liberty. The majority’s contrary assumption ignores the language and purpose of article II, section 3.
Application of strict scrutiny analysis to the circumstances of this case requires the conclusion that the compulsory arbitration provisions of section 10-40-708(1.5), 4A C.R.S. (1990 Supp.), violate State Farm’s fundamental right of access to the courts for the protection of its property interests. The primary justification advanced for the adoption of these compulsory arbitration provisions is the legislative goal of reducing tort litigation. Maj. Op. at 537. That policy is not furthered through legislation prohibiting a person alleging a deprivation of property interests by conduct of private parties from pursuing appropriate judicial remedies.2 No other justification appearing of record, the provisions cannot stand.
II
Even if the right to protect property interests by access to courts secured by our constitution is not accorded fundamental status, application of due process standards to the provisions of section 10-4-708(1.5) requires the conclusion that the judicial review provisions contained therein are constitutionally inadequate.
Because the General Assembly has authority to alter established rights and remedies, arguments premised on access to courts provisions are unpersuasive to the extent they are based on a vested rights analysis. Curtiss v. GSX Corp. of Colorado, 774 P.2d 873 (Colo.1989). This legislative authority is not absolute, however; it must be exercised within constitutional constraints, including the limitations established by article II, section 6. Assuming *544that the minimal rational relationship standard of due process analysis is applicable, the determination of whether a particular statutory scheme limiting access to the courts is rationally related to a legitimate legislative purpose requires examination of the government interests involved and the procedural alternatives provided, as well as the significance of the affected private interests. Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 378, 91 S.Ct. 780, 786, 28 L.Ed.2d 113 (1971). At a minimum, the legislation must provide the litigant with a meaningful opportunity to obtain independent judicial analysis of those interests at a meaningful stage of the dispute resolving process. Id.; see Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank and Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 313, 70 S.Ct. 652, 656, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950); Crowell v. Benson, 285 U.S. 22, 45-57, 52 S.Ct. 285, 290-95, 76 L.Ed. 598 (1932).
State Farm asserts that the judicial review provisions of section 10-40-708(1.5), 4A C.R.S. (1990 Supp.), are inadequate and not rationally related to the legislative purpose underlying the Act. The majority concludes that State Farm is not deprived of access to the judicial process because the statutory scheme provides it with the right to a hearing at which evidence may be presented and defenses raised and “the right to resort to the formal judicial system should it find an arbitrator’s order adverse to its interest.” Maj.Op. at 537. In my view, these statements should initiate rather than end our inquiry.
The right to participate in an arbitration proceeding is not a right to participate in a judicial proceeding. At a minimum, due process analysis requires that abolition of the traditional judicial forum be justified on a quid pro quo basis. See Chmielewski v. Aetna Cas. and Sur. Co., 218 Conn. 646, 664, 591 A.2d 101, 111 (1991). As has been noted, the General Assembly did not abolish common law contract remedies by adopting section 10-40-708(1.5). It rather directed disputes about the availability of such remedy to arbitration processes, thus prohibiting determination of those traditional common-law claims by trial. To the extent the reciprocal benefit is the elimination of tort claims, there is no quid pro quo at all. To the extent the reciprocal benefit is a reduction in delay of payments to insureds, it is far from clear that the procedures established by section 10-40-708(1.5) will substantially achieve such result.
Assuming the constitutional validity of the General Assembly’s decision to require submission of common-law contract claims to compulsory arbitration, thus insulating such claims from adversarial examination of testimony, exhibits and witness credibility under the procedural and evidentiary rules associated with the trial process, such assumption does not answer the serious questions raised by the legislative decision to restrict judicial review of such proceedings to the narrow standards established by the Uniform Arbitration Act, §§ 13-22-201 to -223, 6A C.R.S. (1987) (the Uniform Act). Those provisions are wholly inadequate to protect the important, if not fundamental, right here involved.
The Uniform Act contains stringent limitations on the scope of judicial review of initial arbitration awards. A reviewing court has authority to vacate an arbitration award only if the award was procured by “corruption, fraud, or other undue means ...” § 13-22-214(l)(a)(I); if there is evidence that a party’s rights were prejudiced because of corruption or misconduct or lack of impartiality by one or more arbitrators, § 13-22-214(l)(a)(II); if the arbitrators or one of them acted in excess of the powers granted by the Uniform Act, § 13-22-214(l)(a)(III); if the arbitrators failed to postpone a hearing or to hear relevant evidence, to the prejudice of parties, § 13-22-214(l)(a)(IV); or, in specified circumstances, if there was no arbitration agreement, § 13-22-214(l)(a)(V). A reviewing court may modify or correct an award only if the award contains miscalculations of figures or mistakes in descriptions, § 13-22-215(l)(a); if it was made upon a matter not submitted to arbitration and the award may be corrected without affecting the merits of the decision appropriately rendered, § 13-22-215(l)(b); or if the award is “imperfect in a matter of form, not affecting the merits of the controversy,” § 13-22-215(l)(c).
The Uniform Act thus does not permit the reviewing court to review the sufficien*545cy of the evidence or the propriety of procedural rulings. Furthermore, the reviewing court is for all practical purposes precluded from reviewing evidentiary rulings, and in the absence of specific contractual directions may not vacate an arbitration award even if the arbitrator misapplied applicable rules of law. Cabus v. Dairyland Ins. Co., 656 P.2d 54 (Colo.App.1982); Matter of J.M. Weller Assoc., Inc., 169 A.D.2d 958, 564 N.Y.S.2d 854 (N.Y.App.Div.1991); Morganti, Inc. v. Boehringer Ingelheim, Inc., 20 Conn.App. 67, 563 A.2d 1055 (1989); Woodard v. Southern Cal. Permanente Med. Group, 171 Cal.App.3d 656, 217 Cal. Rptr. 514 (1985). In view of the absence of initial judicial evaluation of evidence and issues and the presence of the inalienable, if not fundamental, right to have meaningful access to the judicial process to resolve contractual disputes involving private property interests, this extraordinarily limited right to judicial review is neither meaningful nor reasonable.
The majority quotes language from two federal circuit court of appeals decisions in support of its conclusion that the judicial review provisions of section 10-4-708(1.5) satisfy the provisions of our constitutional guarantee of the right of access to courts. Maj.Op. at 537. Neither the quotations nor the opinions from which they are excerpted are persuasive here.
Republic Industries, Inc. v. Teamsters Joint Council No. 83, 718 F.2d 628 (4th Cir.1983), raised the narrow question of whether 29 U.S.C. § 1461(e)(2)(A) of the 1980 Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1381-1461 (the 1980 Act) violated various constitutional safeguards. The court upheld the constitutionality of the statutory scheme, rejecting a contrary conclusion reached by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Shelter Framing Corp. v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., 705 F.2d 1502 (9th Cir.1983). The sweeping observations appearing in Republic Industries, Inc., as quoted by the majority, were prompted by the plaintiff’s broad assertion that “compulsory arbitration is invalid.” Republic Industries, Inc., 718 F.2d at 639. The plaintiff therein asserted that the judicial review provisions of the federal statutory scheme did not satisfy due process fairness standards; it did not assert an access to state court argument. Furthermore, although the court upheld the compulsory arbitration provisions of the 1980 Act, it did so in large measure because it construed the judicial review provisions articulated by that statute to permit review of evidentiary as well as legal rulings of the arbitrator, in sharp contrast to the narrow review available in arbitration proceedings subject to the provisions of 9 U.S.C. §§ 1-15. Id. at 641.
Textile Workers Pension Fund v. Standard Dye & Finishing Co., 725 F.2d 843 (2d Cir.1984), also required consideration of the judicial review provisions of 9 U.S.C. § 1461(e)(2)(A) of the 1980 Act. The court rejected the plaintiffs argument that the compulsory arbitration procedures of the 1980 Act violated its right of access to the courts by citing Republic Industries, Inc. for the conclusion that the relatively broad judicial review provisions of the 1980 Act assured the plaintiff of meaningful access to the courts. Both cases turned on the availability of judicial review provisions that permitted far greater judicial evaluation of arbitration awards than is permitted by our Uniform Act.
At the very least, the right of access provisions of the Colorado Constitution require the availability of meaningful judicial review of non-judicial determinations of private disputes over property interests. In my view, section 10-40-708(1.5) does not provide such meaningful review of State Farm’s property interests.
Ill
For the foregoing reasons, I find the compulsory arbitration provisions of section 10-4-708(1.5), 4A C.R.S. (1990 Supp.), violative of sections 3 and 6, article II, of the Colorado Constitution. I therefore respectfully dissent from the contrary conclusion reached by the majority.
LOHR, J., joins in this dissent.

. In the Workers’ Compensation Act cases, we recognized that the General Assembly may abolish common law or statutory rights, subject to constitutional protections, and for that reason persons do not acquire vested interests in particular remedies. Curtiss v. GSX Corp. of Colorado, 774 P.2d 873, 876 (Colo.1989); O’Quinn v. Walt Disney Prods., Inc., 177 Colo. 190, 195, 493 P.2d 344, 346 (1972). In the pro se litigation cases we noted that constitutional rights occasionally conflicted, balanced particular plaintiffs’ rights of access with the rights of others and of the public to fair and efficient judicial processes, and imposed the condition of legal representation on the right of access of those pro se plaintiffs. In Firelock v. District Court, 776 P.2d 1090, 1096 (Colo.1989), we held that a precondition of compulsory arbitration did not contravene article II, section 6, in view of the legislative determination to provide de novo adjudication. From that perspective, Firelock dealt with legislatively created delays of access rather than legislative abrogation of such right.

. The fact that State Farm’s substantive property rights are defined by the No Fault Act is immaterial. The General Assembly did not abolish contract remedies by this legislation; to the contrary, it affirmed the availability of that remedy and simply directed that it be submitted to arbitration rather than to the judicial process.