Court Opinion

ID: 9569582
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:15:21.562211+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:03:33.943158
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
specially concurring.
I certainly agree with the result reached in the majority opinion in this case. I simply add that for me this disposition is consistent with the decisions of this court addressing the concern of prospective or retrospective application of the court’s decisions. Adkins v. Sky Blue, Inc., Wyo., 701 P.2d 549 (1985); Nehring v. Russell, Wyo., 582 P.2d 67 (1978); Oroz v. Board of County Commissioners of Carbon County, Wyo., 575 P.2d 1155 (1978). In those decisions and others, we have recognized that a court may restrict the effect of its decisions to prospective application only even though the traditional rule was one of retrospective application, particularly with respect to questions of substantive law. A limitation to prospective application as outlined in Adkins v. Sky Blue, Inc., supra; Nehring v. Russell, supra; and Oroz v. Board of County Commissioners of Carbon County, supra, would not be appropriate in this instance. Albeit the decision in Ogle v. Caterpillar Tractor Company, Wyo., 716 P.2d 334 (1986), would be considered one of first impression, its resolution clearly was foreshadowed by persuasive authority in other jurisdictions and the actual application of the rule of strict liability in the trial courts in some places in the State of Wyoming. There is no question that the rule of strict liability will be furthered by retrospective operation, and there is no indication that the retrospective application would produce any substantial inequities because of reliance upon the nonavailability in Wyoming of the rule of strict liability. These Wyoming authorities support the majority decision, and they are consistent with the rules invoked from other jurisdictions.