Court Opinion

ID: 9546097
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:24:51.776699+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:15:59.436104
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent for two reasons. First, because the majority unnecessarily overturns several years of this Court’s decisions on an issue not decided by the district court in its decision on summary judgment. Secondly, because the majority’s holding regarding intentional torts cannot survive the analysis of the Bakes, J. dissent.
When the legislature enacted our Tort Claims Act it saw fit to require that a claimant submit a notice of claim to the governmental entity within 120 days from *480the date the claim arose, or reasonably should have been discovered. Admittedly such was an extremely harsh requirement as a precedent to filing an action. Nevertheless, in a series of cases, over constitutional challenge, this Court upheld that authority of the legislature and the validity of the notice of claim requirement. That series of cases culminated in Independent School District of Boise v. Callister, 97 Idaho 59, 539 P.2d 987 (1975). In Callis-ter, a very closely divided Court, over well-reasoned and persuasive dissents, rejected the assertion that the notice period of the statute was tolled during the minority of a claimant, “particularly in view of the fact that he was incapacitated.”
In 1985 the legislature adopted a more lenient attitude and suspended the effect of the notice of claim until a minor claimant reached majority, or to a maximum period of six years. Such conclusively indicates a change in legislative intent but does not result in a retroapplication of the new statute to a time and circumstance well prior to the 1985 change in statute.
Hence, at the time and circumstances of the instant case, the legislative requirement as to notice, was 120 days from the time the claim arose or reasonably should have been discovered. To hold as does the majority that the 1985 statute somehow controls the notice of claim requirement in the instant case, or that the legislature has overruled Callister, is simple sophistry.
The majority opinion cites Farber v. State of Idaho, 102 Idaho 398, 630 P.2d 685 (1981) in support of its conclusions. I fail to see any support therein. Farber involved damage sustained allegedly as a result of highway construction. There the Court did not question the validity or effectiveness of the 120-day notice requirement from the time the claim arose, but held that the claim did not arise prior to the time that the construction project had been completed and accepted by the governmental entity. The majority opinion further relies on a series of cases from the state of Washington which were considered and rejected in Callister.
Just as the majority opinion slips and slides around the then legislative requirement of a 120-day notice of claim, so the majority evades the clear legislative intent not to waive sovereign immunity in the cases of intentional torts. Hence, I concur in the dissent of Bakes, J. Whether the legislature should have exempted intentional torts from the purview of the Tort Claims Act is not for question by this Court, since the policy reasons for that legislative decision cannot be examined. It is sufficient to say that the broadening of the scope of governmental entity liability has allegedly resulted in such substantial losses that some governmental units in Idaho are no longer able to obtain liability insurance coverage.
While under the strictures of Smith v. State, 93 Idaho 795, 473 P.2d 937 (1970), some waiver of sovereign immunity was and is required of our legislature, I see no public policy to be served by requiring Idaho’s governmental units to become insurers against every risk that any citizen may encounter in life. I would hold that the Tort Claims Act does not demonstrate any legislative intent that governmental entities in Idaho should be responsible in damages for crimes committed by employees.