Court Opinion

ID: 9675209
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:45:07.027075+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:32.370654
License: Public Domain

HENLEY, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
I agree with relator’s contention that the general rule is that the provisions of a constitutional amendment are not to he applied retrospectively but are to be given prospective effect only.1 But I cannot agree that this rule prevents application to him of § 30 of Article V (adopted August, 1970), Constitution of Missouri, from and after January 1, 1972, its effective date.
Relator contends that to apply the mandatory age 70 retirement provision to him is to give the amendment retroactive effect, contrary to the rule. In support of this contention he argues that in the election on November 3, 19702 he was retained in office for a full six-year term under a constitution the provisions of which did not require him to retire at any age; that to require him to retire on the effective date of the amendment because he had reached age 70, would be to deprive him of a full term guaranteed by the constitution under which he was elected and under which he thereafter accepted the new term; that to permit respondent to apply § 30 to him would be to apply a law not effective until January 1, 1972, retroactively (1) to a term of office which began before that date and (2) to a public officer who was not, when elected or when he accepted the new term, burdened with the requirement that he retire at age 70.
His contention will not bear close examination in the light of his own argument. Exposed to this light, the unadorned truth underlying his contention is revealed to be: that he has a vested interest or right in the office and its term as it existed under the constitution when he was elected and sworn in.
This contention flies squarely into the face of a recent decision of this court that a public officer has “ * * * no vested or private property right in a public office * * or its term.3 In the Davis case the court held that a constitutional provision that, except as provided in the constitution and subject to right of resignation, all officers shall hold office for the term thereof and until their successors are duly elected or appointed and qualified did not preclude shortening of terms of Kansas City officials from four to two years via charter amendment; that constitutional authority and power to amend the charter carried with it the right of the people to determine the length of term of their elected officials even though that incidentally would involve shortening the terms of incumbents. In Davis, supra, the court quoted with approval this statement from Sanders v. Kansas City, Mo.App., 175 Mo.App. 367, 162 S.W. 663, 1.c. 665: “ * * * [A]n officer elected or appointed even for *402a definite term takes office with the implied understanding that the power which created the office may abolish it before the expiration of his term, in which event he will find himself out of office * *
It logically follows that the power of the people to abolish an office necessarily includes the power to do less, to fix an arbitrary age at which those elected or appointed thereto must retire, even though this would have the effect of compelling the retirement of an incumbent and thereby cut short his term. The customary method by which incumbent officers are exempted from the application of the above rules is the inclusion of a saving or “grandfather” clause in the amendment or its schedule.4 Neither this amendment nor its schedule contains a grandfather clause applicable to circuit judges appointed under the nonpartisan court plan.
For the above reasons, I would hold that relator has no vested right in the office of circuit judge as it existed prior to the effective date of § 30; that § 30 is applicable to him, required his retirement, and that he is disqualified to serve as circuit judge as of January 1, 1972. Accordingly, I would quash our alternative writ of mandamus.
The above reasons are sufficient to support the decision I believe the court should reach. However, there is another and very simple reason why the writ should be quashed which may be stated in very few words. Section 30 provides: “All judges appointed under the * * * [nonpartisan court plan] * * * shall retire at the age of seventy years * * (Emphasis supplied.) Relator was appointed under the nonpartisan court plan and he is over age seventy. The quoted words mean what they say, they exclude or exempt no one, and, since there is no clause elsewhere in the amendment saving circuit judges under the nonpartisan court plan from application of this section, they mandate his retirement.
I refrain from discussing the Fourteenth Amendment question because it is not considered in the majority opinion.

. See: State ex rel. Scott v. Dircks, Mo., 111 S.W. 1, 3, and cases therein cited. See also: 16 Am.Jur.2d, Constitutional Law, p. 218, § 48, and cases there cited.

. This date was, incidentally, his seventieth birthday.

. State ex rel. Voss, et al. v. Davis, et al., 418 S.W.2d 163, 1. c. 167 and 1. c. 170-172. See also: 42 Am.Jur., Public Officers, p. 905, § 33. Closely allied to the proposition that an incumbent has no vested right in a public office or its term is the general rule that “[t]here can, in the nature of things, be no vested right in an existing law which precludes its change or repeal * * *.” See: 16 Am.Jur.2d, p. 763, § 423, and cases there cited. The people who created the office and retained him in it have the power, free of any right of relator, to change their basic law at any time, including the power to change it so as to disqualify their officers who reach a given age.

. See, for example, § 3 of the Schedule to the 1945 Constitution of Missouri.