Court Opinion

ID: 9520092
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:31:13.580868+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:45:31.603217
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE RYAN, also dissenting: I cannot agree with the reasoning of, or the conclusion reached in this opinion. The lengthy discussion concerning a possible common law wrongful death action seems to me to be unnecessary. I also feel that the lengthy quote from Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc. (1970), 398 U.S. 375, 26 L. Ed. 2d 339, 90 S. Ct. 1772, does not add any support to the conclusion reached. As this court noted in Mattyasovszky v. West Towns Bus Co. (1975), 61 Ill. 2d 31, the Supreme Court of the United States, in Moragne, created a common law remedy for wrongful death to supply a remedy for a unique situation that somehow remained not covered by other statutory remedies. Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States again considered Moragne in Mobil Oil Corp. v. Higginbotham (1978), 436 U.S. 618, 56 L. Ed. 2d 581, 98 S. Ct. 2010. The court noting that Moragne was decided to fill a gap not provided for in the statutes, refusing to extend its holding to other areas where Congress had specifically acted, stated: “There is a basic difference between filling a gap left by Congress’ silence and rewriting rules that Congress has affirmatively and specifically enacted. In the area covered by the statute, it would be no more appropriate to prescribe a different measure of damages than to prescribe a different statute of limitations, or a different class of beneficiaries.” (436 U.S. 618, 625, 56 L. Ed. 2d 581, 587, 98 S. Ct. 2010, 2015.) It would thus appear that no matter how erroneous the historical concept concerning death actions may be, as noted in Moragne, in areas where the legislature has specifically provided for an action for wrongful death, Mobil Oil Corp. holds that statutory provisions concerning time limitations, damages, beneficiaries, and other specific statutory provisions are controlling. I do not agree that the amendment in 1977 to the Wrongful Death Act exempting minors from the application of the time limitations within which an action must be commenced (III. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 70, par. 2), manifests an intent to declare established law in that regard. The majority noted that the appellate court opinion in this case declaring that the 2-year time provision would not apply to minors was filed on April 14, 1977. The majority reasoned that the enactment thereafter of the amendment by the General Assembly (the amendment was approved September 16, 1977) indicated that the amendment was declarative of existing law, as announced by the appellate court in this case, and did not manifest an intent to change the law. We note, however, that the amendment in question (Pub. Act 80—700) was passed by the General Assembly on June 21, 1977, and undoubtedly the appellate court opinion in this case had not been printed in the advance sheets by the time of the enactment of the amendment. More convincing still is the fact that Senate Bill 1037, which became Public Act 80—700, was introduced in the Senate prior to the date of the appellate court opinion, and had its first reading in the Senate and was referred to committee on April 8, 1977. (See 1 Final Legislative Synopsis and Digest of the 1977 Session of the 80th General Assembly.) It is highly unlikely that the amendment was in response to the opinion of the appellate court or that it was intended to declare the existing law as stated in that opinion. It is more logical to assume that the legislature enacted this amendment to change the law or that it was in response to the decision of the circuit court in this case which held according to the existing law that the time limitation was a condition of the cause of action and that the minor children were barred by not complying. This is purely a statutory cause of action and the time prescribed in the statute within which the action must be commenced has consistently been construed as a substantive part of the action, a condition of the liability itself, which must be observed in all events (Wilson v. Tromly (1949), 404 Ill. 307). The legislature provided no exception favoring minors until the 1977 amendment. I see no other plausible explanation for the amendment than that it was intended to change the existing law. Referring to Mr. Justice Stevens’s opinion in Mobil Oil Corp., in the area covered by the statutes, it would be no more appropriate, through judicial decisions, to provide a different time within which minors must commence an action than it would be, through judicial construction, to provide a different measure of damages or a different class of beneficiaries. Unless this court is willing to go to the extent that the Massachusetts court did in Gaudette v. Webb (1972), 362 Mass. 60, 284 N.E.2d 222, we should not tamper with a cause of action that is strictly the creature of the legislature by carving out a little exception to accommodate a special case. The decision in this case is not necessary to protect the rights of minors to recover in future cases, because of the 1977 amendment. This decision affects only the minors in this case, but by making a special accommodation to them, it substantially weakens the concept that the Wrongful Death Act is solely the creature of the legislature and that the time limitation is not a statute of limitations but a substantive provision of the Act itself which must be observed in all events (Wilson v. Tromly).