Griffin v. Sheldon

78 F. Supp. 466, 11 Alaska 607, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2503
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedJune 28, 1948
DocketNo. A-4597
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 78 F. Supp. 466 (Griffin v. Sheldon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Griffin v. Sheldon, 78 F. Supp. 466, 11 Alaska 607, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2503 (D. Alaska 1948).

Opinion

DIMOND, District Judge.

In this action the plaintiff challenges the validity of an Act of the Alaska Territorial Legislature passed at the 1947 session of that body and appearing in official print as Chapter 74 of the Session Laws of Alaska 1947, the title of which is: “An Act To amend Chapter 4 of the Extraordinary Session laws of Alaska, 1937, as amended by Chapters 1 and 51, Session Laws of Alaska, 1939, as amended by Section 20, Chapter 40, Session Laws, 1941, by amending Subsection 7(c) providing for and establishing an Experience Rating for Territorial Employers under the Alaska Unemployment Compensation Law and amending Subsection 4(d) and to declare an effective date.”

The defendant, R. E. Sheldon, is the executive director of the Unemployment Compensation Commission of Alaska and the defendants, Ernest F. Jessen, Anthony Zorich and George Vaara, are members of the Commission. The several intervenors are corporations having an interest in the outcome of this litigation since they will be financially affected by the decision given herein.

The plaintiff brings this suit as a resident and taxpayer of Alaska. His averments to that effect in his complaint are admitted by the defendants’ answer. The intervenors, but not the defendants, dispute the right of the plaintiff as a citizen and taxpayer to bring and maintain this action. While the issue was not raised by demurrer, the jurisdiction of the Court is questioned and, therefore, notice must be taken of it.

The action involves the validity of an amendment of one important feature of the Unemployment Compensation Act of Alaska. This Act bears such an intimate relation to the economic well-being of the Territory that the fate of that portion of the Act which is here involved may well affect every citizen and taxpayer in the Territory. The decision here given may conceivably sway the establishment of enterprise or the undertaking of employment in Alaska. Accordingly, the plaintiff as a citizen and taxpayer was eligible to bring, and is eligible to maintain, this action.

The Unemployment Compensation Act of Alaska was originally enacted at an extraordinary session of the Alaska Territorial Legislature held in 1937, and is Chapter 4 of the Session Laws of that session. At subsequent sessions of the Legislature the law has been extensively amended, the latest enactment being that of 1947 which is here in issue. The original law, with the several amendments, covers all of the various features of unemployment compensation legislation and was enacted pursuant to federal legislation on the subject. Every aspect of unemployment compensation is evidently taken care of in the Act.

[468]*468It is asserted in the plaintiff’s amended complaint that the principal beneficiaries of the questioned legislation are “nonresident, seasonal employers, engaged in the fish and mining industries and not accountable for, nor concerned with, the economy of the Territory of Alaska.” Par. VII.

All such considerations are totally irrelevant. We are here concerned with the legal status of what appears to be a legislative act, and not with the wisdom or expediency of its enactment. Moreover, constitutions and statutes and the elementary principles of justice unite in the mandate that no discrimination be shown between residents and non-residents, between “Saints and Strangers.”

Four grounds of invalidity of the Act of 1947 are urged:

(1) That the enacting clause of the law is inadequate because it does not conform with the requirements of Section 8 of the Act of August 24, 1912, 37 Stat. 514, 48 U.S.C.A. § 76, which provides: “No law [enacted by the Alaska Territorial Legislature] shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title.” The Act of August 24, 1912, is commonly known as the Organic Act of Alaska and will be hereinafter referred to as the Organic Act.

(2) That the bill was not lawfully passed by the House because a motion to reconsider duly and regularly made was declared out of order and not voted upon by the House, in violation of the rules of the House.

(3) .That the bill was vetoed by the Governor and was not thereafter considered or voted upon by either House of the Legislature.

(4) That the bill in passage by the House did not have “three separate readings” as required by Section 13 of the Organic Act, 48 U.S.C.A. § 85.

In order .to understand several of the points involved it is necessary to give a history of the legislation.

The bill, known as Senate Bill No. 105, was introduced in the Senate and was considered by that body and passed in due course. It then came into the House on the 47th day of the session and was read the first time and referred to appropriate committees, House Journal page 648. In this connection it is to be noted 'that under the Organic Act, 48 U.S.C.A. § 74, sessions of the Legislature are limited to 60 days. On the 50th day of the session the committee reported the bill back to the House recommending enactment, House Journal, page 683. Not until the 55th day of the session was the bill brought up in the House for consideration and read the second time, House Journal, page 843, whereupon numerous amendments to the bill were offered and voted upon, House Journal, pages 843 to 848. At the conclusion of all the amendments we find the following: “It was moved by Mrs. Engstrom, seconded by Mr. D. Anderson, that the Rules be suspended as to Senate Bill No. 105, that it be considered re-engrossed, advanced to third reading, read by number only and placed in final passage.” House Journal, pages 848 and 849. Vote was thereupon taken and the rules were suspended and the bill passed by a vote of 16 yeas to 8 nays. The Journal recites that “Senate Bill No. 105 was read the third time by number only ,” page 849. (Emphasis supplied.) Later in the same day we find in the Journal, page 858, that one of the members, Mr. Barnett, who had voted in favor of the bill, “gave notice of his intent to move for a reconsideration of his vote” thereon. Thereupon it was moved by another member that the rules be suspended and that the bill be reconsidered immediately, but this motion failed of passage by a vote of 13 yeas to 10 nays, a two-thirds vote being required to pass. And so the vote on the bill was not then reconsidered, House Journal page 858.

On the following day, the 57th of the session, we find a Journal entry, page 872, indicating that a message from the Senate was read transmitting the enrolled copy of Senate Bill No. 105 for the signatures of the Speaker and the Chief Clerk of the House and that the Speaker announced he had signed the enrolled copy of Senate Bill No. 105 and ordered .the same returned to the Senate. Later in the same day, Mr. Barnett, who had theretofore given notice of his intent to ask for re[469]*469consideration of the bill, moved that it be reconsidered at that time. The Speaker ruled the motion out of order. An appeal was taken from the ruling of the chair. That ruling was put to the House and the decision of the Chair was sustained by a vote of 14 yeas to 8 nays, House Journal page 881.

On that same day, the 57th of the session, and probably before the motion to reconsider was brought up in the House, the Senate had ordered the bill to be transmitted to the Governor, Senate Journal page 678. Apparently it was so transmitted because on the 59th day of the session, in the afternoon, a message from the Governor to the President of the Senate was read to the Senate, Senate Journal pages 715 et seq.

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Bluebook (online)
78 F. Supp. 466, 11 Alaska 607, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/griffin-v-sheldon-akd-1948.