Court Opinion

ID: 9586552
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:12:50.481211+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:42.993976
License: Public Domain

McHUGH, Justice,
concurring:
Contrary to the discursive wailing of the dissenting opinion, I believe that the result reached in this case was legally sound.
*579Interestingly, although the dissenting opinion rails at the majority opinion and the decisions used to support it, the dissenting opinion is barren of authority to bolster it.
In a feeble attempt to confuse elementary principles applicable to either criminal or civil contempt, whether intentionally or otherwise, a fundamental legal requirement is not recognized by the dissenting opinion. Whether the contempt proceeding be civil or criminal, notice and an opportunity to be heard are required for either. See, e.g., syl. pt. 2, State ex rel. Hoosier Engineering Co. v. Thornton, 137 W.Va. 230, 72 S.E.2d 203 (1952) (“In a prosecution for contempt of court for an alleged violation of an injunction decree, not committed in the presence of the court, the defendant is entitled to be fully and plainly informed of the character and cause of the accusation.”); Chesapeake & Ohio System Federation v. Hash, 170 W.Va. 294, 299, 294 S.E.2d 96, 101 (1982) (contemnor is entitled to certain fundamental procedural safeguards to insure that contemnor is not deprived of liberty or property without due process of law; “[t]he most basic of the procedural safeguards guaranteed by the due process provisions of our state and federal constitutions are notice and the opportunity to be heard, which are essential to the jurisdiction of the court in any pending proceeding.”); Ex Parte Mylius, 61 W.Va. 405, 407, 56 S.E. 602, 603 (1907) (legal notice of contempt charge is indispensable to a judgment that has any force). In the case before us, notice was absent.
It would have been more helpful if the dissenting opinion was not compelled to resort to old-fashioned “podium pounding.” Perhaps, after research on the notice issue, that was all that remained.