Court Opinion

ID: 9550040
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:28:15.018585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:21:13.922587
License: Public Domain

GOLDEN, Justice,
dissenting, with whom THOMAS, J., joins.
I respectfully dissent. I continue to endorse this court’s original opinion authored by Justice Thomas and join his penetrating and illuminating dissenting opinion today.
I write separately to express my concerns about the new majority’s misunderstanding about the meaning of Wyo. Const, art. 1, § 8.
The new majority claims that Wyo.Stat. § 27-14-104(a) infringes upon the fundamental right of access to the courts because it grants immunity from tort actions to alleged tortfeasor employees who injure a co-employee while acting within the scope of their employment. The new majority makes this claim without having undertaken any appropriate analysis of the constitutional provision in question. Had the new majority used such an analysis, I believe it would have found that section 8 is
not a limitation on lawmakers who, in the proper exercise of the legislative power, may alter or abolish common law causes of action as long as that legislative action does not violate some other provision of our constitution. As Justice Thomas’ original opinion for the court demonstrates, § 27-14-104(a) does not violate any other state constitutional provision.
The starting point for interpreting section 8, as with any constitutional provision, is the original understanding of those who drafted it and the people who adopted it. Rasmussen v. Baker, 7 Wyo. 117, 128, 50 P. 819, 824-25 (1897). When the members of the state constitutional convention convened in Cheyenne in early September, 1889, they had copies of the proposed and soon-to-be-ratified constitutions of Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington.1 The Wyoming Constitution’s guarantee in section 8, “All courts shall be open and every person for an injury done to person, reputation or property shall have justice administered without sale, denial or delay” closely resembles the corresponding guarantee in each of the constitutions of Idaho,2 North Dakota,3 South Dakota,4 and Montana.5 The chief notable textual differ*69ence between Wyoming’s section 8 and its counterparts in our sister states’ constitutions is that the latter expressly mention affording a “remedy,” but the former does not.
The Wyoming framers established Committee No. 1 to consider the preamble and the declaration of rights article of the state constitution, of which section 8 is a part.6 George W. Baxter, a Laramie County lawyer, was chairman of that committee.7 He was probably “the author of much of our declaration of rights.”8 Reports of the several standing committees, including committee No. 1, do not exist.9 The reported floor debates of the framers contain no discussion about the meaning of section 8’s language.10 Our limited search for writings of Mr. George W. Baxter concerning his committee’s work has not been productive.
It is commonly understood11 that the language of section 8 and its sister state counterparts traces back to Magna Carta’s chapter 4012 and Lord Coke’s Second Institute,13 Historically, the Magna Carta expression, as expanded by Lord Coke’s contribution, was no doubt designed to address the evil practice “of commensurating the type and speed of justice with the amount the litigant was willing to pay for the use of the royal courts * * *." 14 Our problem, however, is to determine what the language meant to our framers who undoubtedly, I believe, borrowed it from our sister states’ constitutions. As the language concerns courts and the administration of justice to every person whose person, property, or reputation has been injured, intuitively the language must have been intended as an address to the judicial branch. As we have no record of the framers’ deliberations from which we might find an explanation of what the language meant to them, it is helpful to us, as it has been to others before us, to consider the interpretations given this language by other courts.
In this regard, we are most fortunate to have helpful guidance from the late Justice Blume of this court. In Mull v. Wienbarg, 66 Wyo. 410, 212 P.2d 380 (1949), he, too, explored the meaning of section 8 in the course of his opinion for a unanimous court which held that, absent legislative change, the common law rule, that a cause of action for personal injury and death did not survive the alleged tortfeasor’s death, prevailed. Justice Blume reviewed case law from sister states Idaho, South Dakota, Montana, and several other states, all of which have constitutional provisions similar to our section 8. Mull, 66 Wyo. at 421-23, 212 P.2d at 383-84. Following his lead, we have consulted the case law from those four sister states above mentioned. In interpreting their constitutional provisions, the supreme courts of those states have *70determined that the provision speaks to those who apply the law, telling them when and how they must do so; the provision, however, does not speak to lawmakers, except insofar as they attempt to interfere with the administration of justice. See, e.g.„ Hawley v. Green, 117 Idaho 498, 788 P.2d 1321 (1990); Olsen v. J.A. Freeman Co., 117 Idaho 706, 791 P.2d 1285 (1990); Jones v. State Bd. of Medicine, 97 Idaho 859, 555 P.2d 399 (1976); Moon v. Bullock, 65 Idaho 594, 151 P.2d 765 (1944); (overruled to a limited extent on other grounds, Doggett v. Boiler Engineering & Supply Co., 93 Idaho 888, 477 P.2d 511, 513 (1970)); Meech v. Hillhaven West, Inc., 238 Mont. 21, 776 P.2d 488 (1989); Johnson v. State, 238 Mont. 215, 776 P.2d 1221 (1989); Reeves v. Ille Elec. Co., 170 Mont. 104, 551 P.2d 647 (1976); Shea v. North-Butte Mining Co., 55 Mont. 522, 179 P. 499 (1919); Andrews v. O’Hearn, 387 N.W.2d 716 (N.D.1986); Malin v. La Moure Co., 27 N.D. 140, 145 N.W. 582 (1914); McMacken v. State, 320 N.W.2d 131 (S.D.1982); Simons v. Kidd, 73 S.D. 41, 38 N.W.2d 883 (1949).
In explaining this point, the Montana Supreme Court stated:
The history of the guarantee indicates that framers of state constitutions inserted remedy clauses to insure equal administration of justice. Clauses insuring equal administration of justice are aimed at the judiciary, not the legislature. Therefore, the history of our provision supports [the alleged tortfeasor’s] argument that our remedy guarantee does not create a fundamental right to full legal redress. Such a reading of the remedy guarantee also accords with another rule recognized in Shea [v. North-Butte Mining Co., 55 Mont. 522, 179 P. 499 (1919), which case the late Justice Blume of our court quoted favorably from in Mull]: No one has a vested right to any rule of common law.
Meech, 776 P.2d at 493.
The supreme courts of all four states in the above and foregoing cases have held that section 8’s counterparts place no restriction on the power of the legislature to alter or abolish common law causes of action. Id. These cases are bolstered by decisions from the highest courts of other states, the constitutions of which have provisions nearly identical to section 8. A notable example is found in Colorado, in which the Supreme Court upheld a statute establishing the immunity of co-employees for a fellow worker’s injuries sustained when the employees are acting within the scope of their employment. The court held that the statute did not violate state constitutional provisions of right to access to courts, due process or equal protection. Kandt v. Evans, 645 P.2d 1300, 1306 (Colo.1982).
The power of the Wyoming legislature to abolish substantive common law rights including those traced to the common law of England, in order to attain a permissible legislative object, has previously been decided by this court. Schlattman v. Stone, 511 P.2d 959, 960 (Wyo.1973). The common law of England was not adopted in the state of Wyoming by our constitution. The common law prevails here only by virtue of its adoption into the law of the state by legislative enactment. State v. Foster, 5 Wyo. 199, 38 P. 926, 927-28 (1895). Before statehood, one of the territorial laws, C.L. 1876, ch. 26, § 1, contained the same language that Wyo.Stat. § 8-1-101 contains today:
The common law of England as modified by judicial decisions, so far as the same is of a general nature and not inapplicable, and all declaratory or remedial acts or statutes made in aid of, or to supply the defects of the common law * * * are the rule of decision in this state when not inconsistent with the laws thereof, and are considered as of full force until repealed by legislative authority.
Wyo. Const. art. 21, § 3, provides that “[a]ll laws now in force in the Territory of Wyoming which are not repugnant to this constitution shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitation, or be altered or repealed by the legislature.”
Against this background, I find it most difficult to accept the strange notion that *71the framers and ratifiers of our state constitution, many of whom were “lawyers and others quite familiar with the statute laws of the territory,” 15 intended section 8 to operate so as to freeze in place, impervious to legislative action, all common law causes of action extant in 1889-90. And yet, that is the very strange notion embedded in this court’s new majority opinion. That opinion is based solely on the notion that legislative action which alters or abolishes a common law right of action violates the injured citizen’s section 8 right to access the courts. This court’s new majority has cited no law in support of that notion. Bald assertion masquerades as both legal authority and reasoning. In Mull v. Wienbarg,16 Justice Blume quoted with approval from Shea v. North-Butte Mining Co.17 to make the point that section 8 means “no more nor less than that * * * the courts must be accessible to all persons alike * * * and afford a speedy remedy for every wrong recognized by law as being remedial in court.” (Emphasis added).
Justice Blume specifically noted that Shea addressed this issue:
If the contention of [the injured party’s] counsel should be upheld, the consequence would be that the Legislature would be stripped of all power to alter or repeal any portion of the common law relating to accidental injuries or the death of one person by the negligence of another.
Mull, 66 Wyo. at 428, 212 P.2d at 384 (quoting Shea, 179 P. at 508).
In Shea the court also stated:
It is true the Legislature cannot destroy vested rights. Where an injury has already occurred for which the injured person has a right of action, the Legislature cannot deny him a remedy. But at this late day it cannot be controverted that the remedies recognized by the common law in this class of cases, together with all rights of action to arise in [sic] future may be altered or abolished to the extent of destroying actions for injuries or death arising from negligent accident, so long as there is no impairment of rights already accrued.
Shea, 179 P. at 503.
Thus, Justice Blume knew, as we all do, that the courts are to afford remedies not for every wrong but for every wrong recognized by law. Section 27-14-104(a), enacted by our state legislature in the proper exercise of its police power, does not recognize as a legal wrong compensable under tort law a co-employee’s injury at the hands of a fellow employee acting within the scope of employment. The injury is com-pensable under the worker’s compensation law. The injured employee has a legal remedy. That exercise of the legislative police power does not infringe on the injured employee’s right of access to the courts. The appropriate question then is not whether the right to seek a remedy in the courts for a legally recognized cause of action is a fundamental right; rather, the appropriate question is whether the right to seek a tort remedy in the courts for this particular cause of action is a fundamental right. As demonstrated by the above and foregoing constitutional analysis, the answer is “no.” That correct answer necessarily deprives this court’s new majority of the strict scrutiny standard of review, a standard without which it cannot achieve the result desired.

.Idaho:

Constitution ratified November 5, 1889. Idaho admitted to the Union, July 3, 1890; the constitution became effective the same day. Montana:

Constitution ratified October 1, 1889. Montana admitted to the Union, November 8, 1889. North Dakota:

Constitution ratified October 1, 1889. North Dakota admitted to the Union, November 2, 1889; the constitution became effective the same day.

South Dakota:

Constitution ratified October 1, 1889. South Dakota admitted to the Union, November 2, 1889; the constitution became effective the same day.

Washington:

Constitution ratified October 1, 1889. Washington admitted to the Union, November 11, 1889; the constitution became effective the same day.

See also T.A. Larson, History of Wyoming 246-47 (1965); Richard K. Prien, The Background of the Wyoming Constitution 49-50 (1956) (unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of Wyoming); Charles Kettleborough, Ph.D., The State Constitutions (B.F. Bowen & Company, Indianapolis 1918).

. Courts of justice shall be open to every person, and a speedy remedy afforded for every injury of person, property or character, and right and justice shall be administered without sale, denial, delay, or prejudice.
Idaho Const. art. 1, § 18.

. All courts shall be open, and every man for any injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation shall have remedy by due process of law, and right and justice administered without sale, denial or delay.
N.D. Const. art. 1, § 22.

. All courts shall be open, and every man for an injury done him in his person, property or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and right and justice administered without denial or delay.
S.D. Const. art. VI, § 20.

. Courts of justice shall be open to every person, and a speedy remedy afforded for every injury of person, property, or character; and that right and justice shall be administered without sale, denial, or delay.
1889 Mont. Const. art. 3, § 6 (quoted in Meech v. Hillhaven West, Inc., 238 Mont. 21, 776 P.2d 488, 491 (1989)).

. Journals and Debates of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Wyoming, at 18 (1889).

. Id. at 22; H.J. Peterson, The Constitutional Convention of Wyoming, at 124 (Laramie: University of Wyoming Publications 1940).

. Melville C. Brown, Constitution Making, Proceedings and Collections of the Wyoming State Historical Department, 1919-20, at 101.

. Billis v. State, 800 P.2d 401, 413-14 (Wyo.1990).

. Journals and Debates, supra note 6.

. See, e.g., Meech v. Hillhaven West, Inc., 238 Mont. 21, 776 P.2d 488 (1989); David Schuman, Oregon’s Remedy Guarantee: Article I, Section 10 of the Oregon Constitution, 65 Or.L.Rev. 35, 37-39 (1986); Janice Sue Wang, State Constitutional Remedy Provsisions and Article I, Section 10 of the Washington State Constitution: The Possibility of Greater Judicial Protection of Established Tort Causes of Action and Remedies, 64 Wash.L.Rev. 203, 205-07 (1989); Note, Constitutional Guarantees of a Certain Remedy, 64 Iowa L.Rev. 1202, 1203 (1964).

. "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny, or delay right or justice."

. "And therefore every Subject of this Realm, for injury done to him in bonis, terris, vel persona [i.e., goods, lands, or person], by any other Subject * * * may take his remedy by the course of the law, and have justice and right for the injury done him, freely without sale, fully without any denial, and speedily without delay.” Meech, 776 P.2d at 492 (quoting Sir Edward Coke, Second Institute 55-56 (4th ed. 1671)).

. W.A. Heindl, Notes and Comments, A Remedy for All Injuries?, 25 Chi.-Kent L.Rev. 90, 95 (1947); see also Meech v. Hillhaven West, Inc., 238 Mont. 21, 776 P.2d 488, 492 (1989).

. Mestas v. Diamond Coal & Coke Co., 12 Wyo. 414, 430-31, 76 P. 567, 570 (1904).

. 66 Wyo. 410, 423, 212 P.2d 380, 384 (1949).

. 55 Mont. 522, 179 P. 499, 502 (1919).