Court Opinion

ID: 9567608
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:56:07.136496+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:42.923070
License: Public Domain

GUTHRIE, Justice
(concurring).
The writer would find it hard to concur in the result in the foregoing opinion based solely upon the authorities and reasons therein stated. It is my view that standing alone these delegations of power might well be considered improper. However, in many cases where courts have determined the standards were not definite and certain and constitutionally impermissible they have carefully considered the possibility that an arbitrary and uncontrolled power which might be abused has been delegated. In consideration of an attack of this character upon a statute it must be read in pari materia, Brinegar v. Clark, Wyo., 371 P.2d 62, 64, and cases cited therein. I call particular attention to § 31-273(4), W.S.1957, C.1967, which not only requires findings and a review by the motor vehicle division as a basis for any suspension, but provides any person who has a license suspended may file within 30 days an application with the district court “for a hearing in the matter,’’ and further provides for a jury trial upon request, and an appeal to the supreme court. This may seem procedural, but it is my view that it is also properly considered as a part of the delegation, conditioning and limiting it to avoid arbitrary action. Lack of procedural safeguards have been considered in determining that delegations were unconstitutional, 1 Davis, Administrative Law Treatise, § 2.10, p. 114 (19S8). The court in the oft-cited case of Butler v. Commonwealth, 189 Va. 411, 419, 53 S.E.2d 152, when confronted with a claim of unconstitutional delegation of power to the motor vehicle commissioner in that state, notes the importance of adequate “protection in the form of judicial review.’’ That case involved a statute somewhat similar to ours insofar as the appeal provision is concerned, and the court used that as one of the bases for upholding the delegation of power. It is, then, upon the basis of this procedural safeguard that I am convinced that the statute and these rules are not an improper or unconstitutional delegation of power to the motor vehicle division, it being noted that the right of appeal goes far beyond that provided for aggrieved persons in certain other types of administrative procedural matters.