MARVIN MANDEL, Governor

4009

supplied)

I do not believe that it is consistent with this
important Constitutional concept for the Legislature to
direct what kind of rule the Court of Appeals must
adopt. The Legislature may, as noted, abrogate or change
a rule by enacting a statute inconsistent with it; but it
may not, in my judgment, direct the manner in which a
coordinate branch of Government must act with respect to
an area constitutionally committed to the other branch's
discretion.

I am concerned also about two other features of the
bill.

As noted above, the bill requires the court clerk to
assist parties in the preparation of their pleadings,
presumably without cost, and then exempts the clerk from
liability in connection with such assistance. I
understand the desire to make these proceedings as
informal and inexpensive to the litigants as possible;
but I seriously question whether this is a proper method
of attaining that object. These proceedings, however
informal, are still judicial in nature, and will have to
be resolved on the basis of existing statutes and the
common law. The Statement of claim must, at least, state
a claim in sufficient fashion for the court to take
cognizance of it; and I cannot assume that the clerks and
their deputies, few of whom may be lawyers, are competent
to serve the function given to them by this bill.

Finally, the bill reduces the court costs in these
cases from $5.00 to $2.00 (although no reference to that
is made in the title). The fiscal note prepared by the
Department of Fiscal Services indicates a cost for
additional court clerks of some $44,000, but takes no
account of the decrease in revenue resulting from this
reduction. The fees collected by the District Court are
used to fund the operations of the Court, and yet we have
no estimate of the true fiscal impact of the bill on
those operations.

I am in complete support of the objectives of House
Bill 743, and I am confident that they will be achieved
within the general time—frame established in the bill by
the adoption of rules by the Court of Appeals.

For the reasons set forth, however, I do not believe
that this bill, as it is worded, ought to become law, and
I have therefore vetoed it.

Sincerely,

/s/ Marvin Mandel

Governor