Court Opinion

ID: 9740113
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:28:20.633916+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:16.218011
License: Public Domain

ANDERSON, RUSSELL A., Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I join in part with Justice Gilbert’s dissent and conclude that the trial court — a *927judicial officer — was a de facto court when, under longstanding practice and the color of legislative authority, he presided ably and without objection over the trial of Harris. I would affirm the judgment of the trial court as valid and binding under Marckel Co. v. Zitzow, 218 Minn. 305, 15 N.W.2d 777 (1944). When, as in Marckel, the order and judgment of a municipal court are valid and binding even when operating under a statute later declared unconstitutional, so also the judgment of a judicial officer is valid and binding when he operates under long-accepted practice and longstanding statutory authority, now declared unconstitutional. Marckel, 218 Minn. at 310-11, 15 N.W.2d at 780.