Court Opinion

ID: 9847986
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:10:56.537531+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:52.782629
License: Public Domain

SCOTT, Justice
(concurring specially).
I agree with the majority that the dismissal of this action against the state by the trial court must be reversed. I also agree that the constitutional issues need not be reached to sustain that reversal. I am troubled by the probable confusion created by elevating the notice provisions of such statutes to a level that will certainly be misinterpreted.
The clear implication of Kossak v. Stalling, 277 N.W.2d 30 (Minn.1979), is that, had we been required to reach the constitutional question on the notice issue as well as the time-bar issue, both propositions would have been found unconstitutional rather than merely the statute of limitations provision. It should be made clear that the quoting of Minn.Stat. § 466.05 and other “notice” provisions, or the citing of Hirth v. Village of Long Prairie, 274 Minn. 76, 143 N.W.2d 205 (1966), and Reliance Insurance Co. v. St. Paul Insurance Companies, 307 Minn. 338, 239 N.W.2d 922 (1976), in the majority’s analysis, does not in any way reassert the constitutionality of jurisdictional notice provisions involving state action in whole or in part.
We should reiterate our intent by this quotation from Kossak, 277 N.W.2d at 34:
U.S. Const. Amend. XIV, § 1, provides that no statute shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The purpose of this constitutional provision is to “ * * * secure to every person the right to be free from arbitrary and intentional discrimination.” Price v. Amdal, 256 N.W.2d 461, 468 (Minn.1977). Accordingly, the Equal Protection Clause requires that a legislative classification apply uniformly to all those similarly situated; that the distinctions separating those who are included within the classification from those who are excluded are not arbitrary or capricious, but instead are real and substantial; and that the classification is consonant with a lawful purpose. Schwartz v. Talmo, 295 Minn. 356, 205 N.W.2d 318, appeal dismissed 414 U.S. 803, 94 S.Ct. 130, 38 L.Ed.2d 39 (1973). See, also, State v. Knox, 311 Minn. 314, 250 N.W.2d 147 (1976).