Court Opinion

ID: 9632158
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:05:05.216119+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:09.755867
License: Public Domain

Hill, J.
(dissenting) — I shall not take issue with the very thorough and able majority opinion as to the desirability of the result achieved. I do insist that a change in a doctrine which has become fixed as a matter of public policy should be sought from the legislature, regardless of the reason upon which the rule is made to rest. Hagerman v. Seattle, 189 Wash. 694, 66 P. (2d) 1152, 110 A. L. R. 1110 (1937).
Long adherence to the rule of immunity on the part of charitable institutions from liability for their negligence, and the refusal of the legislature to interfere with that rule, have resulted in its acceptance as a public policy. The majority frankly recognize it as such, but say it is bad public policy and that they intend to change it.
It is persuasively but, in my opinion, not soundly argued that, since the court established the public policy now deemed to be erroneous, it should not hesitate to change it. This court did not by its initial or subsequent decisions in this field consciously undertake to establish a public policy; it attempted to apply the principles of the common law as it understood them to be, to a situation not covered by existing legislation. The rule which it laid down is now a matter of public policy.
Actually, the legislature can determine matters of public policy either by positive action or by inaction (acquiescence in rules laid down by the courts). The courts were not intended as policy-making bodies, and their limitations for the exercise of such a function are readily apparent. They act retroactively and without notice to any but the litigants; the legislature acts only prospectively and after all interested parties have had an opportunity to be heard.
The instant case presents, it seems to me, an excellent example of why the courts should leave changes in public policy to the legislature. After hearing only the litigants on a matter which affects, directly or indirectly, hundreds of charitable organizations and of which they have had no notice, the majority does what the legislature would not be *182permitted to do, i.e., change the public policy of the state ex post facto.
The views expressed by the majority, if unanswerable upon the merits, should be presented to the legislature by the interested parties. There is, in my opinion, no justification for a change by the court in a doctrine which has become fixed as a matter of public policy.