Court Opinion

ID: 9619753
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:32:30.504511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:43.957841
License: Public Domain

Grady, C. J.
(dissenting) — I am not in accord with the view that § 20, chapter 264, Laws of 1945, p. 853, is of the limited duration asserted in the majority opinion. I would feel different if the substance of § 20 had been made a proviso to § 3 instead of a separate section of the act.
Section 3 relates to general elections only. If it had been *630the intention of the legislature to place any limitation upon that section by fixing a time within which a proposition of creating a district might be voted upon at a special election it would have followed the usual method and done so by a proviso.- However, the legislature did not do this. It provided by § 3 that propositions to form a district must be voted on at a general election. Section 3 was followed by other sections relating to a great variety of subjects connected with the operation of such districts. By § 20, the legislature provided that propositions- to create districts might be voted upon at a special election if one of two things was done: (1) If the petition for the creation of the district provided that the proposition be voted on at a special election, or (2) if the county commissioners so ordered. Sections 3 and 20 are independent sections and relate to general and special elections, respectively. Section 3 provides the general rule, and § 20 the exception. The reason for § 20 being made a part of the act is obvious. An emergency might arise in certain localities like it did- in the Spanish influenza epidemic during World War I. The area might not be served by a hospital, or the local hospital might not have the necessary capacity to meet the situation. Public aid might be long delayed if any could be given at all. While waiting for a general election, the loss of life might be very great. Under the act of 1945, as amended by the act of 1947, the voters of any county or lesser area should be able to take prompt action and hold a special election to create a district and provide hospital aid.
I find nothing ambiguous about either § 3 or § 20 that would make either one of them need the application of recognized rules of construction, or make it necessary that the two sections be read together to determine whether § 20 covers only the period from the taking effect of the act of 1945 and the next general election. Both sections operate from the effective date of the act and as long as they remain unamended.
The judgment should be reversed.