Court Opinion

ID: 9565028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:13:22.0137+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:20.387848
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
specially concurring.
My concurrence in the opinion authored by Justice Bakes is premised on the basis that he has made a correct resolution of the narrow issue presented, and also because I am in agreement with his view that although the legislative thought in changing “shall” to “may” in I.C. § 31-3402 is not entirely clear, it is clear enough when read with regard to historical perspective. The historical perspective dates from the year 1864 and the second session of the territorial legislature, Sess. Laws, ch. 24, p. 424, which had for its purpose “the care, protection and maintenance of the indigent sick.” The counties of the territory, through their boards of commissioners, were delegated the duty of attending to the administering of such aid, and were authorized to raise the requisite financing for such aid by both a property tax and a per capita tax, earmarked for a special fund with expenditures therefrom to be made only on order of the board.
In the 1974 amending of the indigency law, a new chapter 35 was created. Section 31-3501 thereof provides as follows:
31-3501. Declaration of policy. — In order to safeguard the public health, safety and welfare, and to provide suitable facilities and provisions for the care and hospitalization of persons in this state, and, in the case of indigent persons, to provide for the payment thereof, the respective counties of this state shall have the duties and powers as hereinafter provided.
It is not possible to misconstrue that legislative language. As to indigent persons, the legislature’s mandate was that their care and hospitalization were to be provided and paid for; the counties of the state were accordingly both empowered and obligated as provided in the chapter. Significantly, “hospitalization” was the word utilized to express being hospitalized, and “care” was the word used to express being treated by someone. “Someone,” under the laws of the state of Idaho would have to be a licensed surgeon or physician. Chapter 18 of Title 54, “Medical Practice Act.”
That hospitals in addition to providing hospitalization may also provide medical or surgical care is envisioned in the set of definitions fashioned by the 1974 legislature. I.C. § 31-3502(2). In that circumstance it is obvious that the use of the phrase “care and hospitalization” as used in § 31-3501 would be redundant as to “care.” Where a hospital does not furnish surgeons or physicians, it is not superfluous to speak in terms of both hospitalization and care.
The main theme of the argument advanced in the amicus brief of catastrophic illness was the rather specious contention that the word “may,” as used in Idaho Code § 31-3402, ought not to be judicially contorted into the word “shall.” That worry is unfounded; there is no need to so indulge. The argument seeks to convince us that in the terminology of the statute the county has an option, that option being whether to employ or not to employ a physician or group of physicians. Amicus brief, p. 12.
That, however, is not the option. The option of the statute is otherwise. The option of the county is that of employing (appointing) a county physician, and, if not, the alternative of contracting out, much as in indigent criminal defense work, the *933whole shooting match. The balance of I.C. § 31-3402 (not set out in the amicus brief) might have proved helpful to counsel.
They [the county commissioners] may provide for the employment, at some kind of manual labor, of such of the patients as are capable and able to work and the attending physicians must certify to the person in charge or lessee of the county hospital the names of such of the patients as are incapable of manual labor, and when such person becomes capable the physician shall certify the fact. I.C. § 31-3402 (emphasis added).
Entirely clear in my view is it that the legislature was of a mind that there will always be available to the sick or injured indigent, under one option or the other as provided by I.C. § 31-3402, an attending physician (or surgeon). Of like import, I.C. § 31-3409 requires that there be an attending physician whose judgmental call is required in order for a county patient to be dismissed from a county hospital.
Idaho Code § 31-3402, as modified from time to time, antedates Idaho statehood by seven years. Of greater age is I.C. § 31-3401, which dates back to 1864, and, in language similar to that found in § 31-3402, presently provides that the county commissioners can contract out the care, protection, and maintenance of the medically indigent, sick, or otherwise indigent of the county.
It seems entirely clear that, as Justice Bakes has detailed, there never was a time since 1864 when Idaho, as a territory and then as a state, did not look out for the welfare of its disadvantaged, its impoverished, and its sick.
As long ago as 1935 this Court took note of the Idaho indigency statutes, and having done so wrote that the law imposed upon the county a public duty to care for the indigent sick and poor of the county. It added that taxes may be levied for payment of such imposed obligations. It added also that under the law it could fulfill its duty “directly or by contract,” going on to explain that building and operating a hospital was “optional and discretionary” with the county. Another option of a county, once it had built and was in operation of a county hospital, was as to non-indigent patients to carry insurance to secure it against such [malpractice] risks or to refuse to accept such patients. Henderson v. Twin Falls County, 56 Idaho 124, 50 P.2d 597 (1935).
To “care for” was for over 50 years understood as providing the indigent sick with medical/surgical attention, together with hospitalization when necessary. In Henderson, a county-funded and county-operated hospital was involved. The public duty to care for the indigent sick was reaffirmed, and continues to this day.
SMITH, J., Pro Tern, concurs.