Court Opinion

ID: 9663851
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:53:32.267604+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:58.399895
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur in the result reached in the opinion written for the Court by Justice Levine and most of the rationale therein. I write specially to note that I do not believe the Department of Human Services can obligate the State to a lease in excess of the period of time for which its appropriation is made, i.e., the biennium, without specific legislative authority to do so. 72 Am.Jur.2d States § 73; 81a C.J.S. States § 156. No such authority has been called to our attention. It may be that leases for a period of time, without specific authority, in excess of the biennium are enforceable insofar as they are contingent upon future legislative appropriations, but it would be perverse to impose a “nonappropriation” theory in aid of a lease that is so structured. If the Department had authority to obligate the State to a lease which extended beyond the biennium, a “nonappropriation” theory would not be illogical because we might assume the Legislature intended to honor the obligations it had authorized except where it specifically indicated a contrary result. See City of Fargo, Cass County v. State, 260 N.W.2d 333 (N.D.1977) [specific language in appropriation bill prohibited using plant improvement funds to pay special assessments]; 72 Am.Jur.2d States § 73.