In re Candelaria

• Citation: 245 P.3d 518
• Decision Date: 14 October 2010
• Docket Number: No. 55714.,55714.
• Parties: In the Matter of the Challenge to the Candidacy of Amber Lynn CANDELARIA. Amber Lynn Candelaria, Appellant, v. David Roger, Respondent, and Colby Dawson Beck; Conrad Hafen; and Bernard Brownislaw Zadrowski, Real Parties in Interest.
• Court: Supreme Court of Nevada

245 P.3d 518

In the Matter of the Challenge to the Candidacy of Amber Lynn CANDELARIA.Amber Lynn Candelaria, Appellant,

v. David Roger, Respondent,andColby Dawson Beck; Conrad Hafen; and Bernard Brownislaw Zadrowski, Real Parties in Interest.

No. 55714.

Supreme Court of Nevada.

Oct. 14, 2010.

Lewis & Roca LLP and Daniel F. Polsenberg and Jennifer B. Anderson, Las Vegas, for Appellant.

David Roger, District Attorney, and Mary-Anne Miller, Deputy District Attorney, Clark County, for Respondent.

Conrad Hafen, Las Vegas, in Proper Person.

Colby D. Beck, Las Vegas, in Proper Person.

Bernard B. Zadrowski, Las Vegas, in Proper Person.

Before the Court En Banc.¹

OPINION

By the Court, PARRAGUIRRE, C.J.:

In this appeal, we are asked to define the eligibility requirements set forth in NRS 4.010(2)(a) for justice of the peace. Based on the statute's plain and unambiguous language, we conclude that, before being elected or appointed to a justice of the peace position, an attorney must be licensed to practice law for a minimum of five calendar years, which are typically 365-day years, from the date of his or her admission. After expedited briefing and argument, we summarily affirmed the district court's order granting the petition to remove the candidate for justice of the peace from the ballot, as she did not meet the minimum five-year requirement. This opinion sets forth the full reasoning that underlies our disposition.

BACKGROUND

Appellant Amber Lynn Candelaria graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Boyd School of Law, in 2006. After successfully passing the Nevada State Bar exam that same year, she was licensed and admitted to practice law for the first time when she was admitted to the Nevada State Bar on October 17, 2006.

In November 2009, the State Bar sent Candelaria her 2010 bar membership fees statement, which assessed her fees at the rate applicable to active attorneys admitted to practice in any jurisdiction for five or more years. After receiving this statement, in January 2010, Candelaria filed a declaration as a candidate for election to the office of justice of the peace in Department 14 of Las Vegas Township. The election for this office is scheduled to be held on November 2, 2010.

Shortly after Candelaria filed her candidacy declaration, respondent Clark County District Attorney David Roger received a request to challenge Candelaria's eligibility to run for the office from real party in interest Bernard Brownislaw Zadrowski, who has also declared his candidacy for this position. As authorized by statute, Roger filed a petition in the district court challenging Candelaria's eligibility. In resolving the petition, the district court determined that Candelaria did not meet NRS 4.010(2)(a)'s requirement that she have been "licensed and admitted to practice law in the courts of this State, another state or the District of Columbia for not less than 5 years at any time preceding ... her election or appointment." The district court further rejected Candelaria's constitutional challenges to NRS 4.010(2)(a). As a result, the district court entered an order granting the petition to remove Candelaria from the ballot as a candidate for justice of the peace. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

This court presumes statutes to be valid, and to demonstrate that a statute is unconstitutional, the challenger must clearly show the statute's invalidity. Halverson v. Secretary of State, 124 Nev. 484, 487-88, 186 P.3d 893, 896 (2008). Questions of statutory construction are reviewed de novo. Leven v. Frey, 123 Nev. 399, 402, 168 P.3d 712, 714 (2007). If a statute's language is clear and the meaning plain, this court will enforce the statute as written. We the People Nevada v. Secretary of State, 124 Nev. 874, 881, 192 P.3d 1166, 1170-71 (2008). Statutory language is ambiguous if it is capable of more than one reasonable interpretation. Id. at 881, 192 P.3d at 1171; Leven, 123 Nev. at 404, 168 P.3d at 716. Under this framework, we first interpret NRS 4.010(2)(a)'s meaning, before addressing the constitutional issues presented.

Statutory interpretation

Nevada's Constitution gives the Legislature the power to determine the number of justices of the peace to be elected in each city and township in the state and to "fix by law their qualifications" for holding the office. Nev. Const. art. 6, § 8. To that end, the Legislature has enacted NRS 4.010, which prescribes the qualifications for service as a justice of the peace. Under NRS 4.010(2)(a), in counties with populations of 400,000 or more, a justice of the peace in a township with a population of 100,000 or more must be

an attorney who is licensed and admitted to practice law in the courts of this State at the time of his or her election or appointment and has been licensed and admitted to practice law in the courts of this State, another state or the District of Columbia for not less than 5 years at any time preceding his or her election or appointment.

Candelaria contends that the term "years" is ambiguous because the statute does not define it and this court's precedent has found the term to be ambiguous. We disagree.

NRS 4.010(2)(a)'s five-year admission and licensure requirement is plain and unambiguous

In support of her ambiguity argument, Candelaria points to this court's decision in SNEA v. Lau, 110 Nev. 715, 877 P.2d 531 (1994). In SNEA, this court addressed a challenge to former governor Bob Miller's eligibility to run for a second full term under Article 5, Section 3 of the Nevada Constitution, which prohibits an individual acting as governor for "more than two years" from being elected as governor more than once. 110 Nev. at 716-17, 877 P.2d at 532-33. Miller had served one full term and a partial term after taking over for Richard Bryan, who was elected to the United States Senate during his term as governor. Id. at 717, 877 P.2d at 532-33. The determinative issue in that case was this court's interpretation of the meaning of the term "years" as used in the phrase "more than two years" in Article 5, Section 3. Id. at 716-17, 877 P.2d at 532-33.

In addressing this issue, the court rejected the petitioners' argument that the term "years" clearly and unambiguously meant a 365-day calendar year. Id. at 717, 877 P.2d at 533. The court began its analysis by noting that many words in the English language can have two or more meanings. Id. The court then concluded that the use of the word "years" in Nevada's statutes and Constitution was an example of this phenomenon, and the court observed that the word may mean a calendar-based year, which is calculated from and to a set date, or an official or political year, which runs from and to a floating day within a month.² Id. at 718, 877 P.2d at 533. Ultimately, the court concluded that the term "years," as used in Article 5, Section 3, should be interpreted as official years. Id. at 719, 877 P.2d at 534.

Candelaria relies on SNEA to support her contention that there is no language in NRS 4.010(2)(a) that clearly indicates that five calendar, and typically 365-day years, must have elapsed between the date of licensure and the date of the election, or that otherwisearticulates a specific period during which a candidate for justice of the peace must have been licensed and admitted to practice law to be eligible to run for that position. Candelaria asserts that NRS 4.010(2)(a) does not require her to have been licensed or admitted for a particular period of time, but merely requires that she have been licensed and admitted a certain number of "calendar years." ³

Candelaria's arguments are problematic for a number of reasons. As an initial matter, the language of the statute at issue here is significantly different and far more specific than the constitutional provision at issue in SNEA. The language of Article 5, Section 3 provides no guidance on what is meant by "years" as used in the phrase "two years of a term." In contrast, NRS 4.010(2)(a) requires a candidate for justice of the peace to have been "licensed and admitted to practice law ... for not less than 5 years at any time preceding his or her election or appointment." As Zadrowski points out, the "not less than 5 years" language anticipates that the attorney will have been licensed and admitted for an exact period of time equal to not less than five years. Moreover, he correctly notes that the statute provides a specified date by which this five-year period must have concluded—before the attorney's election or appointment to the position. Because the statute provides a specific end date, it most logically follows that there is also a specified beginning date—the date an attorney first becomes licensed.

As pointed out in SNEA, many words, viewed in isolation, can have multiple meanings. 110 Nev. at 717, 877 P.2d at 533. By focusing exclusively on the term "years," Candelaria overlooks other key phrasings in NRS 4.010(2)(a). The statute modifies the term "years" with " for not less than 5 years at any time preceding his or her election or appointment." NRS 4.010(2)(a) (emphases added). Unlike the usage of the term "years" in SNEA, the usage of that term in NRS 4.010(2)(a) is not susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation. Here, the statute's language anticipates a definite period (not less than five years) and sets a definite beginning date (the date of admission and licensure) and a date by which the period must be completed (prior to the attorney's election or appointment to the position of justice of the peace). Thus, the period of not less than five years must begin and end before the attorney's election or appointment to the position, a conclusion that requires the use of a calendar-year approach. See SNEA, 110 Nev. at 718, 877 P.2d at 533 (defining a calendar-based year to mean a year calculated from and to a set date). It therefore follows that NRS 4.010(2)(a), by its plain language, requires an attorney to have been licensed for a minimum of five...