Court Opinion

ID: 9588327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:32:55.694095+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:00:58.130229
License: Public Domain

Haden, Justice,
concurring:
I respectfully concur. Concerning the matters contained in Syllabus Point 3 appended to the majority opinion, and the supporting discussion contained in the case, the majority of this Court considers the relators’ Equal Protection argument pursuant to the Fourteenth *743Amendment to the United States Constitution to be without merit. Mr. Justice Sprouse, applying the provisions of that amendment to the statute opines, to the contrary, the relators were denied Equal Protection in that the appeal bond requirements of Code 1931, 50-15-2, as amended, constitute unreasonable conditions precedent to their right of appeal. Although I am in agreement with the views expressed by Justice Sprouse, I believe the position taken by him and the majority overlook the more stringent Equal Access section of the West Virginia Constitution, Article III, Section 17, and the Appeal of Right provision of Article VIII, Section 28. It is my opinion that a proper application of these two provisions of our Constitution compels the conclusion that Code 1931, 50-15-2, as amended, contains unreasonable limitations which are invidious discriminations against indigents abridging their constitutional right to appeal from a decision of a squire which also deny them equal access to the appeal system.
In its discussion of the Equal Protection argument, the majority begins with a bald statement of a legal principle which I believe to be irrelevant to this case. The Court says due process does not require the State to provide an appeal system. Without arguing the correctness of this unqualified statement, I suggest the basic question which should have been answered in the majority’s opinion is: when the Constitution guarantees an appeal from a decision of a justice of the peace, in what respect may the Legislature limit or condition that right?
Article VIII, Section 28 of the Constitution provides in part: “Appeals shall be allowed from judgments of justices of the peace in such manner as may be prescribed by law.” The plain meaning of this language is apparent; Appeal of Right accorded a litigant in a justice court is subject only to legislative enactment providing the method for the exercise of such appeal.
Article III, Section 17 of the West Virginia Constitution provides:
*744“The courts of this State shall be open, and every person, for an injury done to him, in his person, property or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law; and justice shall be administered without sale, denial or delay.”
This section of the Constitution has been construed to be a clear mandate that all litigants, regardless of financial ability, are entitled to equal access to the judicial system. See, State ex rel. Payne v. Walden, 156 W.Va. 60, 190 S.E.2d 770 (1972), wherein this Court recently recognized that the double property value bond requirement of the Forthcoming Bond procedure under the West Virginia statute denies equal access to the courts to a person of low income: “. . . as effectively as if there were a statute that only tenants possessed of certain assets may use the courts.” Id. at page 776 of the Southeastern Report. In accord is the holding of Linger v. Jennings, 143 W.Va. 57, 99 S.E.2d 740 (1957). There the Court refused to construe a statute, providing transcripts to indigent defendants for whom counsel had been appointed, to mean that indigents without such appointed counsel should be denied the transcript for purposes of appeal. To have done so would have constituted a denial of equal access to the courts forbidden by Article III, Section 17 of the West Virginia Constitution.
Tracing the interesting history of this section of the Constitution to its origin in the Magna Charta, this Court, in McHenry v. Humes, 112 W.Va. 432, 164 S.E. 501 (1932), discusses examples of the egregious judicial abuses inveighed against by this ancient provision:
“ ‘Some men used to pay fines to have or obtain justice or right; others, to have their right or their proceedings or judgment speeded; others, for stopping or delaying of proceedings at law; and others were obliged to pay great and excessive fines (viz., a fourth part, a third part, or half of the debt sued for) to obtain justice and right, according to their several cases, so that the king seemed to sell justice and right to some and to delay or deny it to others. Against these mischiefs a remedy was provided by a clause in the great *745charters of liberties, made by King John and King Henry III. That clause in each of those charters runs in the same or consonant words, which are these: Nulli venemus, nulli negdbimus, aut differemus rectum aut justiciam.’ Mag. Char. Joh. 40; Char. Hen. III. 33.” (Emphasis supplied). Id., at page 436-37.
This case involved an increase authorized by the Legislature in fees chargeable by circuit clerks for the institution of suits. The Court recognized and adopted certain principles to test the validity of fee, cost and security statutes. It said such charges do not violate the Equal Access provision of the Constitution unless the statute (1) “requiring the payment . . . discriminates between parties who before the law are entitled to the same remedy under the same conditions.”; (2) “. . . the imposition of costs is unreasonable, . . .”; or (3) “. . . it operates as a penalty on the exercise of the constitutional right to have rights and liabilities declared by the courts.” Id., at page 437. Under these guidelines, the Court in McHenry, held a fifteen dollar fee to be reasonable and not in violation of Article III, Section 17 of the Constitution.
Article VIII, Section 28 of the Constitution, supra, expressly delegates to the Legislature the manner by which the Appeal of Right from a justice’s decision may be exercised. Certainly, the Legislature in the exercise of its police power may adopt any policy not proscribed by the Constitution. Huntington v. State Water Commission, 137 W.Va. 786, 73 S.E.2d 833 (1953); Chapman v. Huntington Housing Authority, 121 W.Va. 319, 3 S.E.2d 502 (1939); State v. Peel Splint Coal Company, 36 W.Va. 802, 15 S.E. 1000 (1892).
This writer recognizes and applauds the legitimate purpose of the Legislature in the enactment of provisions which protect judgments on appeal. Without the same, the force of lower court judgments would be effectively circumvented. Additionally, I recognize the State’s interest in insuring protection of property rights to landlord appellees.
*746In accordance with the principles of the McHenry case, supra, the question is not then the recognized legislative prerogative of protecting these interests but rather the reasonableness of the means employed to accomplish the desired ends. Absent the possible abridgment of a constitutional right, courts are generally concluded from refuting the reasonableness of a legislative enactment. Huntington v. State Water Commission, supra. But in this case, the constitutional right of Equal Access to the judicial system and an Appeal of Right from a decision of a justice of the peace are directly involved.
It is not irrelevant to note that no other place in our Constitution is one given an appeal of right from any judgment of the courts of this State. Both the Equal Access provision and the Appeal of Right section of the Constitution are unique to the jurisprudence of this State; they are not mere renditions or restatements of obscure principles copied from the laws of our mother state. Their provisions are clear, their purpose unquestionable and their protections, therefore, should not yield easily to legislative restrictions not reasonably related to some legitimate and compelling State interest.
I firmly believe the statutory provisions attacked by relators which require both a bond in an amount double that of the judgment, and in addition, an amount equal to one year’s rent as conditions precedent to the perfection of an appeal, are unconstitutional. As applied to poor people who are tenants, the statutory provisions create two distinct classes of appellant — those who are financially able to proceed by posting bond for the appeal, and those who cannot by reason of insufficient finances. Such provisions are disapproved by the Payne, Linger, and McHenry cases, supra. Tested by the strictures of McHenry, the security for appeal, discriminates between parties who are otherwise entitled to the same remedy under the same conditions, and constitutes a cost which is unreasonably burdensome to the right of appeal and access to a court of record, not related reasonably to the interest of protecting judgments and protecting landlords’ *747right in property. Thirdly, in the present case, to receive a hearing in a court of record that $300.00 in rent is not due and owing, the relators will be forced to post bond in the amount of $1,632.00, or vacate the premises.
Since 1933, this State has declared as its public policy that low income families may be provided with public-supplemented rental housing constructed by various public authorities. See, Code 1931, 16-15-2, 16-16-2, and 31-18-2, as amended, for representative legislative findings. In other words, there is a recognized compelling State interest in creating better housing for people of all economic stations and in eradicating the evils destructive of public safety, health and welfare incident to substandard housing. To a poor person who enjoys the aid of the State in securing adequate housing, but who also has some grievance in relation to his status as a tenant, is it a reasonable exercise of State power to tell him “shut up, pay up, or leave”, or post a bond in the amount of $1,632.00 for the privilege of contesting his claim to housing in a court of record? I think not, and I suggest there should be some reasonable correlation between the policy which grants rent supplemented adequate housing to low income tenants and the policy which exacts a very large bond security from those who wish to resolve disputes concerning housing in the court, rather than on the streets.
It appears to me that such security provision, as it operates upon the rights of the relators, is a proscribed penalty on the exercise of their constitutional right to seek vindication in a court of record and denies them equal access to that court.
I am authorized to say that Justice Sprouse agrees with the views expressed in this concurring opinion.