Court Opinion

ID: 9611880
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:01:02.315378+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:31:42.375424
License: Public Domain

*290Gunderson, J.,
dissenting:
This court is called to interpret Sections 2 and 3 of Chapter 400, 1967 Statutes of Nevada, approved April 15, 1967, by which our Legislature amended the 1953 Act that incorporated North Las Vegas.1 If allowed their literal effect, these provisions, as of April 15, 1967: (1) expressly repealed the salary structure theretofore established by the Legislature, by deleting it from the law; (2) mandated the city council (including respondents) to establish a new salary structure; and (3) provided that the compensation so fixed should not be diminished or increased as to any such officer during his term.
Appellants urge us to ignore what appears first in the statute, i.e. the provision for immediate repeal of the existing salary structure: to declare instead that the existing salary structure governed for more than two years after its express repeal. Appellants urge us to limit the power granted by the provision that appears next in the statute, directing the city council to fix the compensation “of the mayor, councilmen and judge of *291the municipal court”: to say instead that the council could lawfully fix enlarged salaries only for their successors in office. Appellants urge us, in sum, to exalt to prime position in the statute that which appears last, i.e. the provision that compensation of city officials is not to be “diminished or increased as to any such officer during the term for which he has been elected or appointed”: to denégrate all in Chapter 400 that precedes that provision. In my view, we may not properly do so.
Although the central issue in this appeal is whether Chapter 400 repealed the existing salary structure, the majority opinion does not quote, or discuss, those portions of Chapter 400 that most directly bear on the issue. Only if one disregards the statute’s express repeal and deletion of the existing salary provisions, is one able to say, as does the majority opinion: “Respondents’ position rests upon the assumption that in amending the previous compensation scheme out of the charter the legislature thus repealed any authorization of compensation (cf. City of Reno v. Stoddard, 40 Nev. 537, 167 P. 317 (1917)), so that as of April 15, 1967 no compensation was payable to these officials.” (Emphasis added.) I submit respondents’ position rests not upon an “assumption,” but upon a literal reading of the statute.
Furthermore, even if Chapter 400 did not expressly repeal the existing salary structure, City of Reno v. Stoddard, referred to in the majority opinion, would nonetheless support the position attributed to respondents. Citing a plethora of authority, in the Stoddard case this court said: “It is, no doubt, a well-settled rule in the construction of statutes, that where a statute provides (as in this case) that a certain former statute ‘is hereby amended so as to read as follows,’ any provision of such former statute which is not found in the new statute is repealed. There is a negative necessarily implied that such eliminated portion shall no longer be in force.” 40 Nev., at 543. The court went on to note that this rule of construction must be applied, “however improvident” the legislation may have been, saying further: “The motives of the legislature are not subject to judicial inquiry. Its will is supreme to that of the judgment of courts as to the wisdom or policy of its legislation.” 40 Nev., at 544. From its earliest decisions, this court has recognized the verity of this view. “The rule is cardinal and universal that if the law is plain and unambiguous, there is no room for construction or interpretation.” Brown v. Davis, 1 Nev. 409, 413 (1865).
Thus, in State v. McNamara, 3 Nev. 70 (1867), while this *292court recognized that the wording of the statute under examination might well have been inadvertent, it adhered to the mandate of the literal words, saying: “So on the other side, it may reasonably be urged that the lawmakers intended precisely what their words import, (this is a primary rule of construction) .. .
“However that may be, we are not at liberty to speculate as regards probabilities, where the language of the law is so clear and unambiguous as in the case before us.
“The Legislature must be intended to mean what they have expressed in plain terms. Whenever they have done so, there remains no room for construction by the Courts. . 3 Nev., at 74.
Somehow, the majority opinion finds support in inapplicable Constitutional and statutory provisions, saying: “First, changes in compensation during terms of office are not favored. Cf. Nevada Constitution Art. 4 § 28 and Art. 15 § 9; and NRS 266.450.” I submit these provisions support respondents more than they do appellants. “Inclusio unius est exclusio alterius. The inclusion of one is the exclusion of another. The certain designation of one person is an absolute exclusion of all others. 11 Coke, 58b; Burgin v. Forbes, 293 Ky. 456, 169 S.W.2d 321, 325.” Black’s Law Dictionary, 906 (4th ed. 1957). Thus, “the legislature has plenary power to pass an act diminishing the salary of a county officer effective during his term unless inhibited by the constitution.” State ex rel. Miller v. Lani, 55 Nev. 123, 125, 27 P.2d 537, 537 (1933).
The majority opinion also asserts: “If a statute delegating authority to fix compensation is ambiguous, power to effect in-term changes will be denied. Busch v. Turner, 161 P.2d 456 (Cal. 1945); Regan v. San Mateo County, 97 P.2d 231 (Cal. 1939); see also Riley v. Carter, 25 P.2d 666, 669-671 (Okla. 1933).” From this reference, one would suppose that in Busch v. Turner the court refused to allow immediate effect to a salary bill, passed during the term of an official who claimed the right to an in-term increase in pay; however, exactly the opposite is true. In the Busch case, the Supreme Court of California did give immediate effect to a salary increase for District Attorneys. In so doing, however, the California court made passing reference to earlier cases holding that, where a constitutional prohibition against in-term increases exists, a salary statute will be construed, if its language permits, so as to avoid unconstitutionality. In this reference, apparently, the majority opinion finds support for its position; however, I find other *293language of the Busch decision to be more informative on the issues before us: “A statute purporting, in general terms, to increase salaries would ordinarily be construed to include incumbents, and but for the constitutional bar it would do so. When the prohibition of the Constitution ceases to operate, there is no longer any reason to limit the statute, and its literal meaning may be carried out in full.” 161 P.2d, at 458; emphasis added. I find the other authorities cited in the majority opinion equally unpersuasive with regard to the case before us.
I subscribe to the reasoning of Matter of Diedrich v. Warren, 213 App.Div. 406, 210 N.Y.S. 49 (N.Y.App. 1925), a case markedly similar to the one before us, and concerning a New York statute that provided “the common council shall have the power to fix and change the salaries of all officers of the city, including such as are fixed by this act [including the common council itself] which shall not be diminished during the continuance of such term of office.” The council increased their own salaries during their terms; their action was challenged on the grounds that the statute conferred no right or power on the council to increase their own salaries during the term of office for which they had been elected, and that their act in making such increase was against public policy. Determining that the language of the new law was reasonably clear, the court declined to apply its own views of public policy.
“The public policy of a State in matters of this nature is what the Legislature says it shall be.” 213 App.Div., at 408.
I see no problem in the fact that our Legislature failed to place an express ceiling on the authority granted to the city council of North Las Vegas. Had the council acted unreasonably, which does not appear to be the case, a different issue would be presented. In such a case, undoubtedly we would determine that their action was beyond the scope of the legislative grant; however, such a consideration provides no warrant for finding the grant of power totally void.
The judgment of the lower court should be affirmed.
Batjer, J., concurs.

 "Sec. 2. Section 11 of chapter II of the above-entitled act, being chapter 283, Statutes of Nevada 1953, as last amended by chapter 447, Statutes of Nevada 1963, at page 1213, is hereby amended to read as follows:
“Section 11. Mayor, [and] Councilmen [,] and Judge of Municipal Court, Salary of.
“[1. Until the election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May 1965, the mayor shall receive for remuneration for his services the sum of $3,000 per year, payable in equal monthly installments. Thereafter, the mayor shall receive for remuneration for his services the sum of $5,400 per year, payable in equal monthly installments.
“2. Until the election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May 1963, the two councilmen who were elected at the election held in May 1959 shall receive remuneration for their services, as such, the sum of $1,800 per year, payable in equal monthly installments. Thereafter they or their successors in office shall receive remuneration for their services, as such, the sum of $3,600 per year, payable in equal monthly installments.
“3. Until the election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May 1965, the two councilmen who were elected at the election held in May 1961 shall receive remuneration for their services, as such, the sum of $1,800 per year, payable in equal monthly installments. Thereafter they or their successors in office shall receive remuneration for their services, as such, the sum of $3,600 per year, payable in equal monthly installments.] The compensation of the mayor, councilmen and judge of the municipal court shall:

“1. Be fixed by the city council; and

"2. Not be diminished or increased as to any such officer during the term for which he has been elected or appointed.

“Sec. 3. This act shall become effective upon passage and approval.”