Court Opinion

ID: 9570627
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:24:45.163004+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:12:09.967934
License: Public Domain

Steffen, J.,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
My brethren on the majority “wholly condemn” the appellant’s behavior in willfully falsifying his employment application and then, sub silentio, ascribe to the legislature an intention to reward such conduct by failing to cover it specifically within the terms of the Nevada Industrial Insurance Act, NRS Chapter 616.
*633Courts have seldom been timid in addressing matters of fraudulent misrepresentation and have, I believe, rather steadfastly refused to grant relief to those who seek advantage from their own wrongdoing. In 1894, this court announced the principle of law “that he who, by his language or conduct, leads another to do what he otherwise would not have done, shall not subject such person to loss or injury by disappointing the expectations upon which he acts. This rule has its justification in the justness of preventing the accomplishment of fraud.” Gardner v. Pierce, 22 Nev. 146, 153-54, 36 P. 782 (1894). Also, in McCausland v. Ralston, 12 Nev. 195, 207-08 (1877), our court approvingly cited from Lord Mansfield in Holman v. lohnson (1 Cowp. 341) wherein he said: “The principle of public policy is this: ex dolo malo non oritur actio. No court will lend its aid to a man who founds his cause of action upon an immoral or an illegal act.” Courts over the centuries have advanced and refined common-law principles governing fraud, and have been vigilant in withholding relief from parties who seek to profit from their own misdeeds. I do not view a statutory alteration of the common-law rights of employers and employees under workmen’s compensation laws as cause to either positively or passively reward fraud in the courts. The policy considerations underlying a scheme of workmen’s compensation do not include awarding compensation attributable to fraud.
In the recent case of Hansen v. Harrah’s, 100 Nev. 60, 675 P.2d 395 (1984), this court rejected the argument it embraces in the instant case. There, we were challenged to await a legislative remedy for retaliatory discharge since the legislature had provided no basis for relief under the Nevada Industrial Insurance Act for discharging an employee in retaliation for filing a workmen’s compensation claim. In judicially recognizing the tort of retaliatory discharge in Hansen, we deferred to a strong public policy in the tradition of the common law. We should be equally motivated in the instant case, for it is consistent with firmly established public policy and legal principle that wrongdoers will not receive state-sponsored aid in seeking advantage from their misbehavior. It is the time-tested strength of the latter maxim that leads me to conclude that the legislative omission on the subject of the type of misrepresentation here present was inadvertent or, in any event, unintended. Since I cannot envision a legislative intent to reward wrongdoing any more than I could conceive legislative condonation of retaliatory discharge, I must respectfully dissent from the position of my brethren.