Court Opinion

ID: 9573712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:57:55.495099+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:43:05.012830
License: Public Domain

*857HARRIS, Justice
(concurring specially).
The question is whether § 781.10, The Code, contemplates the taking of discovery depositions in prosecutions of nonindictable misdemeanors. This question turns on familiar principles of statutory construction.
In State v. Peterson, 219 N.W.2d 665, 669 (Iowa 1974) we held this section does provide for the taking of discovery depositions in felony and indictable misdemeanor cases. In Peterson the majority overruled State v. District Court (Delaware County), 253 Iowa 903, 114 N.W.2d 317 (1962) on the ground the earlier case had inappropriately nullified the section. The contending views expressed in the majority and concurring opinions in Peterson seemed to differ on the issue of whether the right to depose under this section was a question of statutory interpretation. The majority opinion in the instant case appears to proceed in this regard from the concurring view in Peterson.
Our holding in Peterson allowing discovery in criminal cases did not reach non-indictable misdemeanor prosecutions. Rule 1, Rules of Civil Procedure provides: “These rules shall govern the practice and procedure in all courts of the state, except where they expressly provide otherwise, or statutes not affected hereby provide different procedure in particular courts or cases.” A statute does provide a different procedure before magistrates. Section 602.62, The Code, enacted in 1972, lists the chapters which are to govern the procedure before magistrates. Section 781.10, The Code, first appeared in The Code, 1860.
“Where, as here, subsequent legislation which comprehensively and specifically treats a matter included in a prior general statute results in an ambiguity or redundancy, the prior legislation is deemed repealed by implication. (Authorities).” Dugan Transport Co. v. Worth County et al, 243 N.W.2d 655, 658 (Iowa 1976).
Accordingly the operation of § 781.10 is modified by the following language of the later enactment: “The criminal procedure before judicial magistrates shall be as provided in chapters 751, 754 to 763, 765, 766 and 768. The civil procedure before judicial magistrates shall be as provided in chapters 631 and 648.” § 602.62, The Code.
Chapter 781 is omitted. Accordingly the provisions of § 781.10 have no application to trials of nonindictable misdemeanor cases.
Full-time judicial magistrates trying indictable misdemeanors employ district judges’ practice and procedure. See sections 602.4 and 602.60, The Code.
I concur in the result.
MASON, UHLENHOPP, REYNOLD-SON and McCORMICK, JJ., join in this special concurrence.