Court Opinion

ID: 9751045
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:01:02.535341+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:33.760114
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
with whom CARTER, Justice, joins, concurring
I join in the result in this case because I believe that the need for certainty in the law occasionally will override concerns about the judicial process. I accept the considered judgment of the Court in Black v. Solmitz, 409 A.2d 634 (Me.1979) to limit the retroactivity of the rule there announced. I do not agree, however, that it was at all wise to decide in the Black opinion the question of its temporal application. See Box v. Walker, 453 A.2d 1181, 1183-84 *750(Me.1983) (Nichols and Roberts, JJ., concurring). By today’s opinion the Court allows the “carefully considered ... concern for potential defendants” expressed in Black to shift the burden to plaintiff Flagg to justify, in his case, the non-application of a rule determined, in Black, to be unjust. With all due respect, I believe the burden should be on the defense to establish the adverse consequences of a retrospective application of Black.