In re Opinion of the Justices

• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court
• Citation: In re Opinion of the Justices, 84 N.H. 584, 150 A. 551 (N.H. 1930)
• Decision Date: 06 May 1930
• Parties: In re OPINION OF THE JUSTICES.

150 A. 551

In re OPINION OF THE JUSTICES.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

May 6, 1930.

Opinion of the Justices of the Supreme Court in answer to resolutions of the House of Representatives.

To the House of Representatives:

Your resolutions, adopted at the special session of the Legislature, held in March, 1930, were received after the final adjournment of that session. It is not suggested therein that there is any anticipation of a further session. It therefore follows that any answers to your inquiries could not aid you in the performance of your official duties. Opinion of the Justices, 70 N. H. 640, 50 A. 329.

There are early precedents for returning to the inquirers' successors in office answers to questions propounded under these circumstances. Opinion of the Justices, House Journal 1819, 244; Opinion of the Justices, 7 N. H. 599; Opinion of the Justices, 8 N. H. 573; Opinion of the Justices, 41 N. H. 550. In none of these instances does the matter of the limitations upon the duty to answer appear to have been considered. The limitations involved here were first spoken of when the Legislature enacted that a commission should frame rules and forms for proceedings under the school laws, "which * * * when approved by the supreme court or a majority of the judges thereof, shall be deemed valid and sufficient." Laws 1885, c. 144. In declining to pass upon the report of the commission, it was said: "The seventy-fourth article authorizes each branch of the legislature, as well as the governor and council, to require the advice of the justices of the supreme court upon important legal questions pending in the body entitled to the advice, and awaiting the consideration and action of that body in the course of its legislative or executive duty." In re School-Law Manual, 63 N. H. 574, 576, 4 A. 878, 680.

These limitations have since been observed. The question must be pending and awaiting action in the body propounding the inquiry. This test has been considered and applied in the following Opinion of the Justices, 67 N. H. 600, 43 A. 1074; Id., 70 N. H. 640, 50 A. 329; Id., 73 N. H. 625, 63 A. 505, 6 Ann. Cas. 689; Id., 75 N. H. 613, 72 A. 754; Id., 79 N. H. 535, 112 A. 525.

In the present instance the necessary occasion for advice is lacking. Whether the next House will need and desire advice is to be left to its determination. The present House cannot act for it in this matter.

The advice given last January, after the adjournment of the regular...