Court Opinion

ID: 9628885
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:33:39.075474+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:12.761889
License: Public Domain

Springer, C. J.,
dissenting:
As stated in the majority opinion, the issue here is whether the enactment of NRS 616D.030 “bars actions commenced, but not yet reduced to judgment.” All three of these actions were in the process of litigation, and all three are now barred by what has been incorrectly interpreted as retrospective legislation. In my view, the statute does not require that all of these actions must be thrown out of court; and if it did, it would be a violation of due process to frustrate these ongoing law suits.
During oral argument I posed the hypothetical case of one of the appellant/plaintiff’s having obtained a large jury verdict against one or more of the named respondents. I asked counsel what his position would be if an agreed-upon, written judgment on the verdict had been presented to the judge for signature a few minutes after the time that the governor approved NRS 616D.030. For example, if it were discovered by defense counsel that the legislation became effective at 10:00 a.m., by virtue of the governor’s approval, and that the judgment was not signed until 10:30 a.m., would the plaintiff’s claim, as the majority puts it, be barred because it had “not yet [been] reduced to judgment as of its effective date”? The question calls attention to the injustice and unfairness of dismissing an ongoing law suit. The whole idea of throwing a plaintiff’s pending case out of court by virtue of the enactment of legislation enacted after the suit was in progress is repugnant to me and I think to most readers of this opinion. As I will show, NRS 616D.030 does not require such unseemly action to be taken by the district court.
NRS 616D.030 directs that “[n]o cause of action may be brought or maintained.” Black’s Law Dictionary defines “maintained” as “commenced and continued.” Black’s Law Dictionary 859 (5th ed. 1979). Now, of course, there is a big difference *261between commencing and continuing; but “commenced” is certainly a usual and legitimate reading of the word “maintained,” so that “brought or maintained” can be safely and logically read as meaning “brought or commenced.” It is hard for me to understand why, given the majority’s recognition that as “a general matter, statutes are presumptively prospective,” the majority would ignore the meaning of “maintained” as meaning “commenced” and interpret the statute in a manner that would require dismissal of litigation in progress. To me, it is more reasonable to read “brought or maintained” to mean the bringing or commencing of litigation rather than to mean that all ongoing litigation is to be frustrated as of the effective date of the statute. “Brought or maintained” is merely a redundancy; and the legislature’s use of the word “maintained” (although it can also mean “continued”) was not intended by the legislature to mean the cutting off of all litigation pending at the time of enactment. This would be a very strained reading of the language and certainly contrary to the presumption of prospectivity recognized by the majority.
I do not think it is appropriate for me to discuss the constitutional dimensions of this case because the majority opinion fails to do so. To the contention that these claimants are being denied a protectable property right, all the majority has to say is that the statute is “limited in its effect to remedies” and not to substantial rights. (My emphasis.) It would be difficult indeed to persuade the hypothetical plaintiff mentioned above that losing a substantial jury verdict by a stroke of the governor’s pen was merely a procedural or remedial matter and not a depravation of a constitutionally protected property right. I dissent.