The plaintiff then brought this action, and the superior court, denying the defendant's motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action under New Hampshire law, ruled that NET was responsible for affording the plaintiff uninsured motorist coverage. On appeal, the defendant, relying on our recent decision in Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 589 A.2d 1016 (1991), argues that, as a self-insurer, it is not required to provide its employees with uninsured motorist coverage. The plaintiff contends, to the contrary, that because NET is a self-insurer complying with the New Hampshire Financial Responsibility Laws, RSA ch. 264 (1982 and Supp. 1991), it must provide uninsured motorist coverage.
In light of our decision, we need not address the parties' remaining arguments. See Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 230 (1991) (declining to address parties' other remaining arguments when holding on one issue is dispositive).
Because we have concluded that the evidence is sufficient to prove that the defendant purposely violated the order through his physical acts, we need not consider his remaining arguments, which relate to the sufficiency of the evidence pertaining to the five speech-based acts that the trial court found that the defendant committed in violation of the order. Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 230, 589 A.2d 1016 (1991) (declining to address parties' other arguments where holding on one issue is dispositive). As defense counsel conceded at oral argument, because the State charged the defendant in the alternative, the trial court could have found the defendant guilty of criminal contempt if it concluded that he purposely committed any one of the six charged acts.
Because our holding on this issue is dispositive of this case, we decline to address the parties' other arguments. Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 230, 589 A.2d 1016 (1991). Reversed.
Because we conclude that the plain language of RSA 507:8–h does not bar Mr. Antosz's negligence claim, we need not decide whether the statute applies only to claims by paid firefighters. See Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 230, 589 A.2d 1016 (1991) (declining to address parties' other arguments where holding on one issue was dispositive).We hold, therefore, that based upon the plain language of RSA 507:8–h, the trial court erred in granting the defendant's motion for summary judgment.
"This court is the final arbiter of the intent of the legislature as expressed in the words of a statute considered as a whole." Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 227 (1991) (quotations and brackets omitted). "[L]egislative intent is to be found not in what the legislature might have intended, but rather, in the meaning of what it did say."
As noted by the majority, the United States Supreme Court has stated that "[t]o compel employees financially to support their collective-bargaining representative has an impact upon their First Amendment interests," Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Education, 431 U.S. 209, 222 (1977), and that requiring non-union employees to pay agency fees is "a significant impingement on First Amendment rights," Ellis v. Railway Clerks, 466 U.S. 435, 455 (1984). In light of the constitutional right implicated by the imposition of agency fees and the absence of explicit legislative authorization, we will not guess "what the legislature might have intended," Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 227, 589 A.2d 1016, 1017 (1991) (quotation omitted), or "add words that the legislature did not see fit to include," Cheever, 141 N.H. at 592, 688 A.2d at 567. Instead, we believe that this is a matter for "legislative assessment rather than for determination by judicial fiat," Am. Employers Ins. Co., 102 N.H. at 536, 163 A.2d at 569 (Kenison, C.J., dissenting), and decline to interpret the legislature's silence on this issue as implicitly authorizing agency fees, cf. Lakin v. Daniel Marr Son Co., 126 N.H. 730, 732-33, 495 A.2d 1299, 1301 (1985) (refusing to implicitly allow workers' compensation carrier to recover interest on lien where legislature silent on issue).
State Employees' Ass'n of N.H. v. Bd. of Trustees, 120 N.H. 272, 273, 415 A.2d 665, 666 (1980). We construe each statute as a whole, Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 228, 589 A.2d 1016, 1018 (1991), and if the statute's language is clear and unambiguous, we do not look beyond the language of the statute to discern legislative intent, Silva v. Botsch, 120 N.H. 600, 601, 420 A.2d 301, 302 (1980). Accordingly, "[w]e interpret legislative intent from the statute as written, and therefore, will not consider what the legislature might have said or add words that the legislature did not include."
As with every other statute, we construe the grandparent visitation statute as a whole, with an eye towards avoiding absurd results. Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 228, 589 A.2d 1016, 1018 (1991); cf. Petition of The State of New Hampshire (State v. Langille), 139 N.H. 705, 707, 661 A.2d 766, 768 (1995). A cursory reading of the first sentence of the grandparent visitation statute might suggest that a grandparent has standing at all times, and in all circumstances. See RSA 458:17-d, I. Other provisions of RSA 458:17-d only make sense, however, if standing is limited to the circumstances detailed in the second sentence of the statute.
As we have stated many times, "this court is the final arbiter of the intent of the legislature as expressed in the words of a statute considered as a whole." Dionne v. City of Manchester, 134 N.H. 225, 227, 589 A.2d 1016, 1017 (1991) (quotations omitted). The town argues in its brief that RSA 155-E:2, III(b) specifically requires Whitcomb to comply with local land use ordinances and regulations.