Court Opinion

ID: 9582876
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:32:14.881923+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:38:40.886954
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the opinion of the Court.
The City of Boise did not raise as an issue on appeal the inappropriateness of the issuance of a writ of prohibition, which is the basis of the Court’s decision. Ordinarily, the failure of the appellant to raise an issue on appeal will eliminate the consideration of that issue in the appeal. State v. Prestwick, 116 Idaho 959, 961, 783 P.2d 298, 301 (1989). In Prestwick we said that this rule might be relaxed where the issue was addressed by authorities cited or arguments contained in the briefs. Here, not only did the City of Boise not list this issue as one of the issues on appeal, the city also did not address it by authorities cited or arguments contained in the briefs on appeal, or in the oral argument before this Court. Therefore, in my view, we should not address the issue.
As I see it, the issue of the inappropriateness of the issuance of the writ of prohibition involves neither a question of the trial court’s jurisdiction to issue the writ, nor a question of plain or fundamental error. The trial court clearly had the jurisdiction to issue the writ, whether it should have done so or not. The plain or fundamental error, rule as this Court previously articulated, allows this Court to address an issue on appeal that was not raised or preserved in the trial court. State v. Haggard, 94 Idaho 249, 486 P.2d 260 (1971); State v. Cariaga, 95 Idaho 900, 523 P.2d 32 (1974). Here, the issue of the appropriateness of issuing a writ of prohibition was raised neither in the trial court nor before this Court on appeal. Apparently, we now have a new rule that allows this Court to search the record to discover “plain or fundamental” error not asserted on appeal.
We should address the issues presented on appeal concerning the validity of the annexation and its reasonableness.