Court Opinion

ID: 9625186
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:30:47.7273+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:02.556319
License: Public Domain

Mallery, J.
— This case involves the validity of the Laws of 1951, chapter 156, p. 430, and the Laws of 1953, chapter 206, p. 476, in so far as they purport to establish justice court district committees with power to create a new system of justice of the peace districts in the state.
The Laws of 1951, chapter 156, § 8, p. 432 (RCW 3.14.010), as amended by the Laws of 1953, chapter . 206, § 1, p. 476 (RCW (Sup. 1953) 3.14.010), provide for the establishment of a justice court district committee in each county comprised of the presiding judge of the superior court, the county commissioners, the prosecuting attorney, one justice of the peace selected by the county commissioners, and the county auditor. It is the duty of the committee to meet prior to January 1, 1954, and group the county precincts entirely outside of justice of the peace precincts in cities of more than five thousand population into one or more justice court districts. The board of county commissioners shall establish by resolution justice court districts in accordance with the recommendations of the justice court district committee. The justice of the peace for a district, which includes a city of under five thousand population, may be appointed as police judge of the city.
The members of the justice court district committee and the committee as such of Snohomish county, which was duly organized and exists pursuant to the sections of the law in question, as paraphrased above, and which was invalidated by the lower court, are the appellants herein.
Appellant members of the committee contend for the validity of the laws creating it, and their right to be members of it. In support of the judgment, the trial court made finding of fact No. 5, which reads:
*895“That section 1, chapter 206, Laws of 1953, the same being RCW 1953 Supp. 3.14.010, and section 11, chapter 156, Laws of 1951, the same being RCW 3.14.030, are unconstitutional acts of the legislature of the State of Washington and are in direct violation of Amendment 28 to the State Constitution of the State of Washington, which provides in part as follows:
“ ‘The legislature shall determine the number of justices of the peace to be elected and shall prescribe by law the powers, duties and jurisdiction of the justices of the peace; * i‘,i * > J5
Appellants concede that the number of justices of the peace in the state will be determined by the number of justice of the peace districts established at the discretion of the justice of the peace district committees, in contravention of the constitutional mandate that “the legislature shall determine the number of justices of the peace to be elected.” However, they seek to avoid unconstitutionality of the statutes in question on the ground that they provide for a permissible delegation of legislative authority. A discussion of the standards under which delegation of legislative authority is permissible, is not called for in this case. The specific mandate of the twenty-eighth amendment to the constitution of the state of Washington is too clear for interpretation. It unequivocally places the duty of fixing the number of justices of the peace upon the legislature exclusively, and leaves no room for the applicablity of the doctrine of permissive delegation of legislative authority.
It is true the legislature has not and will not perform the duty imposed upon it by the twenty-eighth amendment by providing for an abstract specific number of justices of the peace. On the contrary, it has and will, by general law, establish a formula from which the exact number of justices of the peace can be determined by reference thereto. In the past, the reference has been to precincts. The reference could, with equal facility, be made to population or any other existing fact or facts thought to be suitable for the purpose. It is immaterial that precincts can be and are changed from time to time by county commissioners as long as they retain their identity as precincts for the pur*896poses served, by precincts. Under the statutes in question, the justice of the peace district committees, without reference to any other fact and at their discretion, would create not precincts but an exact number of justice of the peace districts. However wise the plan may be, it contravenes the twenty-eighth amendment to the constitution of the state of Washington.
Our holding that the statutes in question violate the twenty-eighth amendment makes it unnecessary to discuss the contentions of the parties hereto relative to violations of the twenty-first amendment to the constitution.
The judgment herein strikes down specifically the two sections of the law cited therein. The rule of severability is that only the provisions of a statute are invalid which themselves offend the constitution, together with such others as are so related to them that it cannot be supposed the legislature would have passed them independently.
Our examination of the legislative acts in question impels us to hold that the legislature would not have passed the Laws of 1953, chapter 206, § 6, p. 478 (RCW (Sup. 1953) 3.14.040), which fixed the salaries of the justices of the peace of the new districts, other than on the assumption that the cited sections were valid.
The judgment is affirmed with this modification. Neither party will recover costs.
Grady, C. J., concurs.