Court Opinion

ID: 9742051
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:05:51.697143+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:28.176107
License: Public Domain

SABERS, Justice
(dissenting).
Counsel for the School District conceded during oral argument that the notice and ballot were defective under SDCL 6-3-4.* SDCL 6-3-4 provides:
The resolution or ordinance, notice and ballot as provided in chapter 6-8B shall include the estimated total cost of the building or improvement, the names of the other participating subdivisions, and shall refer to the agreement on file in the office of the recording officer.
*93Under the unambiguous terms of this statute, the notice and ballot shall include the estimated total cost, the names of participating subdivisions, and refer to the agreement on file. Yet, contrary to these mandatory terms, the notice and ballot in this case did not include the “estimated total cost of the building,” the “names of the other” participants or “refer to the agreement.” Therefore, the election was defective and void.
According to the majority writing, however, because “[tjerms of a statute relating to a particular subject will prevail over general terms of another statute,” and SDCL 6-3-3 immediately refers the reader to SDCL 6-8B without mentioning 6-3-4 whatsoever, the notice and ballot were proper. I disagree. SDCL 6-3-4 is the statute which relates to a particular subject and should prevail over the general terms found in SDCL 6-8B-4 and 6-8B-5.
It is not necessary that SDCL 6-3-3 mention SDCL 6-3-4. Chapter 6-3 is entitled Joint County-Municipal-School District Buildings. SDCL 6-3-4 defines further the requirements of the resolution, ordinance, notice, and ballot as found in chapter 6-8B when, as in this case, two or more political subdivisions agree to jointly acquire a public building for their common use. To ignore SDCL 6-3-4 because “SDCL 6-3-3 immediately refers the reader to SDCL 6-8B” is to ignore the intent of the legislature in enacting SDCL 6-3-4, as well as the entire chapter. As counsel for the School District conceded for purposes of argument, the notice and ballot were defective under SDCL 6-3-4.
Despite these defects, the majority writing concludes that the defective notice and ballot were cured by the subsequent amendment of SDCL 6-8-3. I disagree. I do not accept the argument that defects in an election can be cured by the Legislature while the case is on appeal. See generally People ex rel. Leaf v. Orvis, 374 Ill. 536, 30 N.E.2d 28, 30 (1940) (citations omitted), cert. denied, 312 U.S. 705, 61 S.Ct. 827, 85 L.Ed. 1138 (1941). (“[Tjhe General Assembly cannot, by a curative act, make a void proceeding valid.”). Whether the goal of the election is progress over stagnation or good over bad is immaterial— the end does not justify the means.
[T]he legislative action cannot be made to retroact upon past controversies, and to reverse decisions which the courts, in the exercise of their undoubted authority, have made; for this would not only be the exercise of judicial power, but it would be the exercise in the most objectionable and offensive form, since the legislature would, in effect, sit as a court of review .to which the parties might appeal when dissatisfied with the rulings of the courts. It is one of the fundamental principles of our government that the legislative power shall be separate from the judicial. If the General Assembly would prescribe a different rule for the future from that which the courts enforce, it must be done by statute applicable in the future, and cannot be done by setting aside final judgments of the courts. Such leaves the law unchanged and has the effect merely of seeking to require that the courts construe it not according to judicial judgment but according to later legislative will.
Id. at 31 (citation omitted). If we permit the results of this defective election to stand, we will be furthering the old saying:
No one’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.

 The trial court agreed, stating in its Memorandum Opinion that "[i]t is this Court’s opinion that based upon the record in this matter that the school district in giving notice and in the ballot, may not have complied with the provisions of SDCL 6-3-4 as to stating that the city of Yankton was a participating governmental agency, the total estimated cost of the project, and the agreement between the city of Yankton and the Yank-ton School District as to the construction and operation and participation in this joint venture.”