Court Opinion

ID: 9598250
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:07:13.081013+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:38:25.016482
License: Public Domain

McGRAW, Justice, dissenting:
I dissent from the majority’s holding that a violation of W.Va.Code § 8-24-44 does not give rise to an implied cause of action under the criteria of Hurley v. Allied Chemical Corp., supra. The primary basis for the majority’s holding is that the statute in issue involves only procedural standards and does not create substantive rights. I find such reasoning untenable. While there may be some occasions when the distinction between procedural and substantive law is justified, see, e.g., State ex rel. Johnson v. Hamilton, 164 W.Va. 682, 266 S.E.2d 125 (1980), in the interests of justice such distinctions must be set aside where procedural law is used to achieve results which are forbidden by the substantive law. See, e.g., Pnakovich v. State Workmen’s Compensation Comm’r, 163 W.Va. 583, 259 S.E.2d 127 (1979).
The error in the majority’s holding is that they fail to recognize that the appellants possess a constitutional right to the notice and hearing prescribed by W.Va. Code § 8-24-44, guaranteed by article three, section ten of the Constitution of West Virginia, which prohibits the deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process by law. Due process requires that a municipality, when enacting a zoning ordinance that affects the substantial property rights of its residents, afford those affected by the ordinance notice and an opportunity to contest the ordinance’s provisions. See generally Annot, 96 A.L.R.2d 449, §§ 3, 4 (1964). The statute here in issue is simply a legislative recognition of this constitutional requirement.*
As the majority correctly notes, statutory language creating a right or duty has traditionally been the most accurate signal of legislative intent to confer a private cause of action. Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677, 99 S.Ct. 1946, 60 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Hurley v. Allied Chemical Corp., supra. Therefore, the statutory language in issue here, which recognizes the constitutional rights of interested parties to notice and the opportunity for a hearing, and the duty of the *24municipality to provide these procedural guarantees prior to the enactment of a valid ordinance, is a fortiori indicative of a legislative intent to confer a private cause of action.
Further support for the appellants’ claim that an implied cause of action exists in this case can be found in article three, section seventeen of the West Virginia Constitution, which provides: “[t]he 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 .... ” Thus, when a deprivation of due process rights results in an injury to a person in his or her person, property or reputation, our State Constitution guarantees a judicial remedy. The appellants herein have alleged an injury to their property caused by the negligent and illegal act of the appellee in adopting a zoning ordinance without adhering to constitutionally based requirements of due process. Considering our sworn duty to uphold the Constitution of this State, see W.Va. Const, art. 4, § 5, this Court should be the last to deny the appellants access to the judiciary to seek redress of their injuries.
I am authorized to state that HARSHBARGER, J., joins me in this dissenting opinion.

 To the extent that the appellants’ cause of action is founded in constitutional guarantees of due process, it could be argued that an inquiry into an implied cause of action arising from W.Va. Code § 8-24-44 is unnecessary. Legal commentators have suggested that a direct cause of action for damages arising from the violation of constitutional rights by government officials, as in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971), could be recognized in a zoning context. See Johnson, Compensation For Invalid Land-Use Regulations, 15 Ga.L.Rev. 559, 597-98 (1981); Note, Damage Remedies Against Municipalities For Constitutional Violations, 89 Harv.L.Rev. 922 (1976). See also Gordon v. City of Warren, 579 F.2d 386 (6th Cir.1978); Sixth Camden Corp. v. Township of Evesham, 420 F.Supp. 709 (D.NJ.1976); Dahl v. City of Palo Alto, 372 F.Supp. 647 (N.D.Calif. 1974).
Furthermore, recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court which have expanded coverage of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 to include local governmental units, indicate the appellants may have a cause of action for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1976). See Owen v. City of Independence, 445 U.S. 622, 100 S.Ct. 1398, 63 L.Ed.2d 673 (1980); Lake Country Estates, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 440 U.S. 391, 99 S.Ct. 1171, 59 L.Ed.2d 401 (1979); Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978); see also International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. v. City of Evanston, 89 Ill.App.3d 701, 44 IIl.Dec. 664, 411 N.E.2d 1030 (1980); Parkway Bank & Trust Co. v. City of Darien, 43 Ill.App.3d 400, 2 IIl.Dec. 234, 357 N.E.2d 211 (1976); T & M Homes, Inc. v. Township of Mansfield, 162 N.J.Super. 497, 393 A.2d 613 (1978).