Court Opinion

ID: 9673064
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:05:44.264015+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:19.679599
License: Public Domain

TOMLJANOVICH, Justice,
dissenting.
Today’s unprecedented and premature dismissal of John Derus’ primary-election contest violates not only the contestant’s statutory right to a determination of the facts at the district court, see Minn.Stat. § 209.10 (1994), it also violates the legislature’s constitutionally mandated authority to determine the “eligibility of its own members,” Minn. Const, art. IV, § 6, and this court’s holding that it will not and should not act as the legislature’s agent by rendering advisory opinions in legislative-election contests, Scheibel v. Pavlak, 282 N.W.2d 843, 850-51 (Minn.1979); see also Minn. Const, art. Ill, § 1 (providing for separation of powers).
As this court previously held, election contests under the laws of this state are exclusive statutory proceedings. Hancock v. Lewis, 265 Minn. 519, 522, 122 N.W.2d 592, 594 (1963) (citing Christenson v. Allen, 264 Minn. 395, 398, 119 N.W.2d 35, 38 (1963)). “It is elementary that both the right to contest an election and the authority of courts to hear and determine an election contest are purely statutory; and, absent statutory compliance, courts are powerless to entertain such proceedings.” Christenson, 119 N.W.2d at 38. Derus timely filed an election contest under Minn.Stat. chapter 209, which requires in part that such claims originate in the district court. Minn.Stat. § 209.10, subd. 3 (1994). The statute provides for this court’s involvement in two specific instances. First, to submit a list of district-court judges to the parties. Minn.Stat. § 209.10, subd. 2 (1994). And second, to hear appeals of district-court decisions. Minn.Stat. § 209.10, subd. 4 (1994). Although this court maintains supervisory powers, the assumption of such power in this ease is particularly indefensible given that this is an election contest. As this court stated in Scheibel, the supreme court’s jurisdiction upon appeal of legislative-election contests “would be a clear violation of the constitutional directive that the House and Senate be the judges of the qualification of their members.” Scheibel, 282 N.W.2d at 851; see also Scheibel, 282 N.W.2d at 865 (Kelly, J., dissenting) (stating this court has no jurisdiction in legislative-election contests). If this court’s jurisdiction upon appeal is unconstitutional, as Scheibel maintains, this court’s premature assumption of jurisdiction to dismiss a case before the district court has performed its statutorily mandated fact-finding function is, a fortiori, unconstitutional.
The better result is to follow the directives of both Minn.Stat. § 209.10 and Scheibel and submit a list of district-court judges to the parties for the purpose of the election contest. Justice Page asserts that the judiciary’s involvement, even at the district-court level, violates separation of powers. And he may be right. See Minn. Const, art. Ill, § 1 (stating that none of the three governmental branches “shall exercise any of the powers properly belonging to either of the others except in. the instances expressly provided in this constitution”). As Justice Kelly asserted in Scheibel, the district court should be allowed to do no more than “take the evidence, state the issues, and summarize the testimo*521ny.” Scheibel 282 N.W.2d at 866 (Kelly, J., dissenting). But Justice Page’s position goes too far at this time. A decision that precludes even the district court’s involvement in a legislative-election contest would require not only that we strike down Minn.Stat. § 209.10, subds. 1-4, but also that we overrule Scheibel. See Scheibel, 282 N.W.2d at 850 (stating that separation-of-powers limitations in election contests do not apply to the district court). Given that none of the three parties argued that the statute is unconstitutional as applied to the district court, a dismissal on those grounds would be premature and overreaching.
Although three of the five justices ruled that John Derus’ election contest be dismissed, only Chief Justice Keith and Justice Coyne dismissed the contest on its merits. I, on the other hand, am joined by Justice Page and Justice Gardebring in holding that this court has no jurisdiction to décide whether the election contest states a claim upon which relief can be granted.