Rheaume v. State
| Decision Date | 12 October 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 10415,10415 |
| Parties | Lindsey RHEAUME, Robert Kjenstad, and William F. Saefke, Plaintiffs and Appellees, v. The STATE of North Dakota, North Dakota State Board of Higher Education, and Robert O. Wefald, Attorney General of the State of North Dakota, Defendants and Appellants. Civ. |
| Court | North Dakota Supreme Court |
Frederick E. Saefke, Jr., Bismarck, argued, for plaintiffs and appellees.
Rick D. Johnson, Asst. Atty. Gen., State Bd. of Higher Educ., Bismarck, argued, for defendants and appellants. Appearance by Boyd A. Wright, Grand Forks.
The plaintiffs, Lindsey Rheaume, Robert Kjenstad, and William F. Saefke (the Students) filed a declaratory judgment action requesting the District Court of Burleigh County to construe, as it relates to them, Section 15-10-18.3, N.D.C.C., which provides in relevant part:
The district court entered a judgment on January 5, 1983, construing the provision as unambiguously including flight instruction costs as "fee charges," and from that construction of the statute the defendants (the state), filed this appeal. We affirm.
The parties have stipulated that the Students are qualified dependents of resident veterans for purposes of applying the foregoing section and that the Students are enrolled in the Department of Aviation at the University of North Dakota pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees. To earn a bachelor's degree with an aviation major, the Students are required to obtain certain flying licenses by attending various flight courses, as a part of their required curriculum, including flight instruction laboratories. A student who enrolls in a flight laboratory is assigned several designated slots each week to receive flight instruction at the airport from University instructors in University-owned or leased airplanes. At the end of each flight instruction, the Student receives an invoice showing the cost of the instruction which is based upon an hourly rate for both the instructor and the airplane. At the end of each month, the Student is billed by the University for that month's total flight instruction costs.
Between January, 1981, and June, 1982, flight instruction charges were waived by the University as fee charges under Section15-10-18.3, N.D.C.C., pursuant to an interpretation of that statute by Kent Alm who at that time was the Commissioner of Higher Education in North Dakota. During June, 1982, the attorney general's office issued an opinion stating that flight instruction costs were not to be waived as fee charges under Section 15-10-18.3, N.D.C.C., and, thereafter, those charges have not been waived by the University. The Students then filed this declaratory judgment action requesting the district court to construe Section 15-10-18.3, N.D.C.C.
The primary objective of statutory construction is to ascertain the intent of the legislature. Rothe v. S-N-Go Stores, Inc., 308 N.W.2d 872 (N.D.1981). Every word used in a statute is to be given its plain, ordinary and...
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