Court Opinion

ID: 9883496
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:43:49.114796+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:24.009668
License: Public Domain

HARTZ, Judge (specially concurring). I concur in the result and virtually all of the discussion and reasoning in Judge Apodaca’s opinion for the majority. My sole difference with the majority relates to the three paragraphs in Section 11(B) immediately following the paragraph discussing NMSA 1953, Section 15-36-23. Rather than joining the majority’s view that the effect of the saving clause at issue here differs from that of Section 15-36-23, I conclude that the two provisions have the identical effect. A proper understanding of the saving clause requires consideration of the 1975 Act as a whole. The Act repealed almost all of the sections in Article 36 of Chapter 15, entitled “Powers of Counties,” and replaced them with a new Article 36A, entitled “County Ordinances,” which redefined the powers of counties and spelled out the formalities for the proposal and adoption of county ordinances. In this context it would make perfect sense for the legislature to make clear that the new formulation of the powers of counties and the manner of adoption of ordinances was not intended to undo what counties had accomplished in the preceding decades. It appears to me that this is precisely what the saving clause accomplishes. The clause spells out that all previously enacted ordinances, although enacted pursuant to now-repealed statutory provisions, remain on the books and continue to have the same effect. When the second portion of the saving clause says that the ordinances “shall have the same effect as if enacted pursuant to this Act,” the most reasonable interpretation is that the ordinances shall have the same effect as if they had been enacted in accordance with the new procedures spelled out in Article 36A. I agree with Plaintiffs that there is no difference in substance between saying “the ordinance is not repealed” and saying “the ordinance shall have the same effect as if enacted pursuant to newly enacted statutory procedures.” Thus, the second portion of the saving clause is not strictly necessary. Nevertheless, it is not unheard of for statutes to include language solely for the purpose of emphasis. Indeed, as pointed out by the majority, there can be little doubt that language in Section 15-36-23 that is very similar to the second portion of the saving clause had no purpose other than emphasis. Section 15-36-23 is of particular interest because it may well have served as the model for the saving clause at issue in this case; after all, Section 15-36-23 was one of the statutory provisions repealed by the 1975 Act. Finally, I should also add that I fully concur with one of the grounds expressed by the majority for rejecting Plaintiffs’ proposed construction of the saving clause. For the reasons stated by the majority, I agree that we should “resist any interpretation of the 1975 Act that requires looking outside of that Act to other statutes or constitutional provisions to determine whether an otherwise saved ordinance has been repealed in whole or in part.”