Court Opinion

ID: 9674340
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:27:03.640736+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:27.052543
License: Public Domain

FINCH, Chief Justice
(concurring).
I concur fully in the principal opinion. I file this concurrence only because I have the impression that some courts may have misconstrued our opinion in State ex rel. Weinstein v. St. Louis County, Mo., 451 S.W.2d 99 (banc 1970), as holding that they need merely express or declare a need for something, request in a routine way that it be furnished, and if it is not, then order the funding of the proposed program. Such is not a correct understanding of the Weinstein case. It is not a routine procedure. It authorizes the exercise of the inherent power of the court to provide things reasonably necessary to permit the court to perform its mission only if a genuine effort has been made to demonstrate an actual need, and only if a genuine effort to secure funding therefor through normal channels has been made.
In this case, a substantial change in the program of the Juvenile Court was proposed. Thirty new people were to be added. The city offered to make a joint study as to the need for such people, but this course was not pursued. It should have been in this case, although I do not mean to imply that such a survey would he a prerequisite in every case. If such study had been made and it had demonstrated that the program was well conceived and necessary to help solve the very troublesome problems of the Juvenile Court, the city might well have then appropriated the money. It had been cooperative with the court in the past.
In the future, courts seeking to rely on the inherent power doctrine to secure personnel or facilities should understand that a genuine need must be shown and that they must diligently seek to have that need funded by conventional means. Only if such efforts fail and it is clear that the facilities are reasonably necessary for the court to perform its function is the doctrine to be applied.
HENLEY, J., concurs and concurs in concurring opinion of FINCH, C. J.