Court Opinion

ID: 9849437
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:40:09.499099+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:23.917548
License: Public Domain

Hall, Justice,
dissenting.
I concur with the holding that the Mangelly decision will be prospective from March 31, 1979, at 12:00 midnight, when the order of this court was made the judgment of the trial court. This is the only just and equitable way to treat all the parties in the dispute. However, I cannot agree with Division 2 of the majority opinion which leaves the premise in Division 1 and makes *58the Mangelly decision retroactive to December 1, 1979.
The entire Act has been held unconstitutional. Illegal taxes have been collected under the unconstitutional Act for the benefit of the cities and the counties. In reality these illegal funds do not belong to either the cities or the counties, i.e., they belong to the taxpayers. By making the decision prospective (Division 1) we have thwarted any procedure for the illegal funds to be returned to the taxpayers. It therefore follows that the cities and the counties should be fed with the same spoon from the unconstitutional pot. Compare, the Legendary Highwaymen’s case that Lord Kenyon refers to as an ancient suit in equity by a plaintiff against a defendant for an accounting of the profits of a partnership. The evidence showed that the trade was taking the purses of those who traveled over the heath. The trial judge denied the accounting and hanged both parties. 9 L.Q.R. 105 (1893).