Court Opinion

ID: 9560290
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:46:42.74542+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:38.052305
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
specially concurring.
For the most part I concur with the opinion authored by Justice Donaldson. I write only to note that today’s opinion is refreshingly reminiscent of reasoning offered by the same Justice Donaldson 17 years ago in Renner v. Edwards, 93 Idaho 836, 475 P.2d 530 (1970):
It is manifestly inconsistent and unfair to bar a negligently injured party’s cause of action before he even had an opportunity to discover that it existed. Id. at 842-43, 475 P.2d at 533-37 (Donaldson, J., specially concurring on rehearing).
*710Chief Justice Shepard 17 years ago in Renner was then of the same altruistic tenor:
It would, in our opinion, be manifestly unjust to bar the enforcement of injury claims brought by a plaintiff who was not, nor could not have known that he was, the victim of tortious conduct because the consequent harm was unknowable within two years of the negligent act____
... No statute should be construed to bring about a patently inane result; moreover, we have often said the legislature could never be presumed to have intended to enact laws which are absurd, unjust or unreasonable. Id. at 839, 475 P.2d at 533 (emphasis added).
Justice McQuade agreed with the foregoing language of Justice Shepard, as did Justice Donaldson. Lamentably, notwithstanding that three justices were of a like mind, in the years following Renner, this Court forgot the heights to which it had risen, and commenced a period of obsequious deference to the legislature’s 1971 amendment of I.C. § 5-219(4).1 See, e.g., Theriault v. A.H. Robins Co., Inc., 108 Idaho 303, 698 P.2d 365 (1985); Holmes v. Iwasa, 104 Idaho 179, 657 P.2d 476 (1983); Twin Falls Clinic & Hospital v. Hamill, 103 Idaho 19, 644 P.2d 341 (1982); Owyhee County v. Rife, 100 Idaho 91, 593 P.2d 995 (1979); Martin v. Clements, 98 Idaho 906, 575 P.2d 885 (1978).
However, our better recent cases, today’s included, have reestablished support for the proposition that a literal application of the language of the 1971 amendment would lead to absurd results, depending on the specific facts before the Court. See Corbridge v. Clark Equipment, 112 Idaho 85, 88, 730 P.2d 1005, 1008 (1986) (The sale of an allegedly mislabeled product which causes a personal injury more than two years after the sale takes place, “[W]e have never held that a statute of limitations may run before an aggrieved party suffers damages.” Dicta (emphasis original)); accord, Streib v. Veigel, 109 Idaho 174, 178, 706 P.2d 63, 67 (1985); Blake v. Cruz, 108 Idaho 253, 260, 698 P.2d 315, 322 (1985).
A sadly missing feature of today’s majority opinion, however, is language stating that to interpret I.C. § 5-219(4) as requiring that the statute would commence running prior to some objectively detectable proof of injury could raise a serious conflict with art. 1, § 18 of the Idaho Constitution. Such was humbly first suggested to other members of the Court in Streib v. Veigel, 109 Idaho at 179, 706 P.2d at 68, [Bistline, J., specially concurring]; Theriault v. A.H. Robins Co., Inc., 108 Idaho at 309, 698 P.2d at 371 (1985) [Bistline, J., dissenting]. In Theriault, it was only Justice Huntley who noted my caution that:
By refusing to hold that a cause of action accrues under I.C. § 5-219(4) only after the injured party discovers (or reasonably should have discovered) the facts giving rise to his or her cause of action, the majority is seemingly oblivious to art. 1, § 18 of the Idaho Constitution, wherein it mandates that: “Courts of justice shall be open to every person, and a speedy remedy afforded for every injury of person, property or character, and right and justice shall be administered without sale, denial, delay, or prejudice.” (Emphasis added.)
... This Court’s acquiescence in the legislature’s amending of I.C. § 5-219(4), so as to only allow application of the discovery rule in cases involving foreign objects or fraudulent concealment, is a judicial abrogation of this Court’s duty to uphold and protect the constitutional rights of the citizens of this state.
It is conceded that the legislature can legislate, but in so doing, it cannot contravene the Constitution. This Court *711should not be party to the closing of the courtroom door before a plaintiff has learned that he had good cause for judicial redress. As the United States Supreme Court long ago declared:
It may be properly conceded that all statutes of limitation must proceed on the idea that the party has full opportunity afforded him to try his right in the courts. A statute could not bar the existing rights of claimants without affording this opportunity; if it should do so, it would not be a statute of limitations, but an unlawful attempt to extinguish rights arbitrarily, whatever might be the purport of its provisions. Wilson v. Iseminger, 185 U.S. 55, 62, 22 S.Ct. 573, 575, 46 L.Ed. 804 (1902) (emphasis added).
In simple direct language the Idaho Constitution directs that the courts of this state be open to every person, and a speedy remedy afforded for every injury suffered. This Court should be the first to heed this mandate. Nothing justifies ignoring it.
This is not to say that art. 1, § 18 invalidates statutes of limitations per se. Clearly, such is not the intent of § 18. What this section does provide, however, is that all people have a reasonable opportunity to seek redress through this state’s court system. Fundamental fairness requires no less. Theriault, supra, 108 Idaho at 309, 698 P.2d at 371 (emphasis original).
Accolades would have fallen to Justice Donaldson today had he frankly and forthrightly acknowledged that this Court has a duty, in fact, a constitutional mandate, to balance any legitimate deference to the legislature against the obligation that resides uniquely with this judicial branch of government to uphold and protect the constitutional rights of the citizens of this state.
Of course, this is not a concept new to me or to American jurisprudence. Indeed, when such confrontations occur, it is “emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803).
HUNTLEY, J., concurs.

. The celebrated amendment provided in relevant part:
[B]ut in all other actions, whether arising from professional malpractice or otherwise the cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued as of the time of the occurrence, act or omission complained of, and the limitation period shall not be extended by reason of any continuing consequences or damages resulting therefrom____ 1971 Idaho Sess.Laws ch. 180, p. 847 (1971).