Court Opinion

ID: 9649978
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:16:39.228186+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:16.486163
License: Public Domain

Kenison, C.J.,
dissenting: I can agree that the defendants’ actions in this case were morally reprehensible, legally wrong and should be punished. But these conclusions do not decide the threshold question before us. The wrong question frequently begets a wrong answer as this case illustrates in assuming that municipal courts have jurisdiction to execute contempt decrees in motor vehicle cases. While some early cases in the Nineteenth Century held that the power of contempt was inherent in all courts independently of statute (State v. Matthews, 37 N. H. 450, 453; State v. Towle, 42 N. H. 540), the matter was put into proper focus by the Opinion of the Justices, 86 N. H. 597, 602, decided in 1933: “As before pointed out, it is the law of this state that the power to punish for contempt, is an essential attribute of a court of general jurisdiction.” (Emphasis supplied). It is clear that the power of contempt is inherent in the Supreme and Superior Courts as courts of general jurisdiction. *13RSA 490:4; RSA 491:7, 19, 20; RSA 498:1. Probate courts have limited and special jurisdiction only so far as granted by the Legislature. N. H. Const., Pt. II, Art. 80; Wood v. Stone, 39 N. H. 572; Protective Check Writer Co. v. Collins, 92 N. H. 27. Consequently, it was deemed advisable to give probate courts authority to issue contempt decrees in 1911 (Laws 1911, c. 129, s. 1) which was further extended in 1957. Laws 1957, c. 240 s. 2; RSA 547:11 (supp); Seventh Report, N. H. Judicial Council 47 (1958).
Municipal courts, like probate courts, are courts of limited jurisdiction and have the authority to issue contempt decrees only in particular cases. RSA 592-A:15 (supp); Laws 1957, c. 244, s. 8 (the failure of a party to answer a summons); RSA 165:19 (contempt powers in support cases). Municipal courts, when acting as juvenile courts, have broader contempt powers but they are limited by statute in the manner of execution and the extent of punishment. RSA 169:5; RSA 169:35 (supp); Laws 1957, c. 214, s. 1. Interestingly enough the latter statute limits the extent of the punishment, provides that the defendant shall “have a reasonable time to make a defense,” and that the trial shall be “before a judge other than the one who issued the written order.” But there is no statute granting municipal courts contempt power in motor vehicle cases and no general statute granting them contempt powers in the exercise of their criminal jurisdiction except as mentioned in the instances cited above.
The Legislature has seen fit to grant contempt powers to the municipal courts only in limited instances, none of which is applicable to this case. Since I am convinced that the municipal court has no contempt power in the present case, I do not reach the questions discussed in the majority opinion.