Employees' Retirement System v. Government of the Virgin Islands

19 V.I. 539
CourtDistrict Court, Virgin Islands
DecidedApril 28, 1983
DocketCivil No. 80-355
StatusPublished

This text of 19 V.I. 539 (Employees' Retirement System v. Government of the Virgin Islands) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, Virgin Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Employees' Retirement System v. Government of the Virgin Islands, 19 V.I. 539 (vid 1983).

Opinion

CHRISTIAN, Chief Judge

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

This case is presently before the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56. At issue is the legality of Act Number 4449 enacted by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands on June 30, 1980, and approved by the Governor on July 9, 1980. 1980 V.I. Sess. L. 105. For the reasons which follow, the motion of plaintiff will be denied and the motion of defendant will be granted.

I.

Plaintiff is a government corporation established by 3 V.I.C. (“Retirement of Personnel”) to administer certain annuity and disability benefits on behalf of qualifying retired employees of the Government of the Virgin Islands (designated as “members” of the System), their dependents and beneficiaries. Under the terms of 3 [541]*541V.I.C. § 715(a), the responsibility for the operation of the retirement system is vested in a board of trustees. The board is charged with the duty of investing and re-investing the reserves of the system under specific “conditions and limitations” set forth in § 717 of Title 3. In addition, the board is required to “adopt rules and regulations to govern its internal organization,” id. § 715(b), and to “[prescribe the policies for the proper operation of the system and carry on any other reasonable activities which are deemed necessary to effectuate the intents and purposes of the system in accordance with the provisions of” the enabling statute. Id. § 715(b)(7). The board members are designated as trustees of the retirement system funds and the board is expressly made “separate and distinct from all other entities.” Id. § 715(a).

The statute challenged herein was approved by the Legislature as an amendment to that section (717) which sets forth the various “conditions and limitations” under which the board may employ the retirement system trust funds.1 Act Number 4449 sought to add another such “condition” by amending subsection (12)(a) of § 717 to read as follows:

Chattel mortgages [to members of the system] shall be made for the purchase of new automobiles, new passenger-carrying trucks or vans, or other new passenger-carrying type vehicle[s].

In addition, the legislation added to subsection (12) a new subparagraph (f) which reads as follows:

The Board shall not determine that members who are otherwise qualified to obtain a loan under this paragraph (12) are ineligible for a loan for the sole reason that the vehicle will be used, in whole or in part, as a taxicab.

By the present action, plaintiff2 seeks a declaratory judgment that Act Number 4449 is an unlawful legislative intrusion into the fiduciary responsibilities of its board of trustees. Jurisdiction is premised on 5 V.I.C. §§ 1261-1272.

[542]*542II.

Those who seek judicial review of a duly enacted statute must of course overcome the strong presumption in its favor. The burden is thus placed squarely on the plaintiff to point to a particular provision of law which has purportedly been infringed or ignored by the enactment in question. See, e.g., City of New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U.S. 297 (1976). In the absence of convincing evidence that the challenged statute controverts either a specific constitutional or statutory provision, it must stand. That the statute has brought about unwise or ill considered results affords no basis for a court to declare it invalid. Sunshine Anthracite Coal Company v. Adkins, 310 U.S. 381 (1940). “Nor can legislation be set aside . . . because ... it has been sponsored and promoted by those who advantage from it.” Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 551 (1949).

Plaintiff here concedes that in enacting the challenged statute the Legislature did not encroach upon any specific prohibition contained in either the U.S. Constitution or the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands. Instead it argues that the statute impermissibly restricts the discretion previously afforded the board under the terms of the enabling act.

It is an elementary proposition that administrative bodies such as the Virgin Islands Employees Retirement System are in all respects creatures of statute. As such they have no general or common law authority but only that authority conferred upon them by legislation; therefore the “authority created by statute can [properly] be modified by statute.” Emery v. United States, 186 F.2d 900, 902 (9th Cir. 1951).

No individual, least of all the administrative entity ordained and established by statute, has a “vested right in an existing [statute] which precludes its change . . . nor any vested right in the omission to legislate on a particular subject.” 16A Am. Jur. 2d Constitutional Law § 671 (1979). Thus the failure of the Legislature in the present case to have initially addressed a certain class of mortgages in the specific “conditions and limitations” set forth in § 717, did not necessarily preclude the subsequent inclusion of that class. Indeed, given the well recognized power of the legislative branch to assign new functions to an executive agency, Shields v. Utah Idaho Central Rail Co., 305 U.S. 177 (1938), to transfer previously assigned functions, Interstate Commerce Commission v. United States ex rel. Humboldt, 224 U.S. 474 (1912) or to abolish [543]*543outright an administrative entity or its programs, Chorpenning v. United States, 94 U.S. 397 (1877), it follows that a legislative body also has the authority to direct an agency to act (or to refrain from acting) by modifying the enabling statute under which it was initially created. See Mezines, Stein and Gruff, 1 Administrative Law § 3.02 (1982). So long as the statutory modification does not violate a specific constitutional provision as to its form, General Assembly of New Jersey v. Byrne, 448 A.2d 438 (N.J. 1982), or otherwise “prevents the Executive Branch from accomplishing its constitutionally assigned function,” Nixon v. Administrator, General Services Administration, 433 U.S. 425, 443 (1977), it must be upheld.

III.

Plaintiff would bolster its separation of powers argument by pointing to the independent trustee status expressly conferred on the board of the Retirement System and urging that the statutory amendments at issue impair the discretionary authority conferred upon a trustee under common law. This argument is without merit.

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Related

Chorp Nning v. United States
94 U.S. 397 (Supreme Court, 1877)
Silver v. Silver
280 U.S. 117 (Supreme Court, 1929)
Shields v. Utah Idaho Central Railroad
305 U.S. 177 (Supreme Court, 1938)
Sunshine Anthracite Coal Co. v. Adkins
310 U.S. 381 (Supreme Court, 1940)
Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp.
337 U.S. 541 (Supreme Court, 1949)
City of New Orleans v. Dukes
427 U.S. 297 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Nixon v. Administrator of General Services
433 U.S. 425 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Emery v. United States
186 F.2d 900 (Ninth Circuit, 1951)
General Assembly of State of New Jersey v. Byrne
448 A.2d 438 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1982)

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Bluebook (online)
19 V.I. 539, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/employees-retirement-system-v-government-of-the-virgin-islands-vid-1983.