Court Opinion

ID: 9616727
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:49:19.981117+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:59:21.936696
License: Public Domain

McGRAW, Justice,
dissenting:
I dissent from the majority because the right of trial by jury is a fundamental principle of Americo-Virginia law.
Chesterton, the “prince of paradox,” framing the experience of two millennia in Tremendous Trifles: The Twelve Men, said:
“Our civilisation has decided, and very justly decided, that determining the guilt or innocence of men [natural or artificial] is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men. It wishes for light upon that awful matter, it asks men who know no more law than I know, but who can feel the things that I felt in the jury box. When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.” Gilbert K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles: The Twelve Men 86-87 (1922).
Sprung from this political experience, our West Virginia Constitution, living today, asserts in Article III, § 10:
“No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, and the judgment of his peers.”
West Virginia Constitution, Article • III, § 17 affirms “due process of law”:
“The courts of this State shall be open, and every person, for an injury done to him, in his person, property or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law; and justice shall be administered without sale, denial or delay.”
West Virginia Constitution, Article III, § 13 provides thusly for “judgment of his peers”:
“In suits at common law, where the value in controversy exceeds twenty dollars exclusive of interest and costs, the right of trial by jury, if required by either party, shall be preserved; ... No fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any case than according to rule of court or law.” (Emphasis added).
Padover, in The Complete Jefferson attributes to the great Thomas:
“In truth, it is better to toss up [heads or tails] ... in a cause than to refer it to a judge whose mind is warped by any motive whatever, in that particular case. But the common sense of twelve honest men gives still a better chance of just *257decision than the hazard of [heads or tails]_” Saul K. Padover, The Complete Jefferson 656 (1943).
That Mr. Delp’s physical injuries impinges upon full enjoyment of life, liberty and property is clearly apparent to the most jaded of our professional lot. But, the claim that his injury is the result of willful, wanton and reckless misconduct will never be put to the judgment of his peers. The Court has been closed. There shall be no remedy by due course of law. Justice is denied because the right to a jury trial has not been preserved.
The trial court erred in substituting a personal view of the evidence for the fact-finding function of the jury. This is precisely the evil that West Virginia Constitution, Article III, § 13 is designed to prevent.
The majority has also forsaken West Virginia Constitution, Article IV, § 5 in its refusal to apply the constitutional standard of review mandated by West Virginia Constitution, Article III, § 20:
“Free government and the blessings of liberty can be preserved to any people only by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”
The right of trial by jury is a fundamental principle of Americo-Virginia law. Accordingly, the judgment of the circuit court should be reversed and the case should be put to a jury trial.