City of East Wenatchee v. Douglas County

156 Wash. App. 523
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJune 22, 2010
DocketNo. 28580-4-III
StatusPublished

This text of 156 Wash. App. 523 (City of East Wenatchee v. Douglas County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of East Wenatchee v. Douglas County, 156 Wash. App. 523 (Wash. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

Kulik, C.J.

¶1 Douglas County refused to pay for the city of East Wenatchee’s juvenile detention costs at the nearby Chelan County facility. Douglas County required East Wenatchee to place juveniles at Douglas County’s contracted facility, Martin Hall, in Medical Lake, Washington. East Wenatchee brought suit against Douglas County, seeking a declaratory judgment that Douglas County was financially responsible for temporary housing of juveniles arrested within East Wenatchee’s city limits at the Chelan County facility, or that Douglas County was financially responsible for East Wenatchee’s transportation costs to take juveniles to Martin Hall. Martin Hall is 158 miles from East Wenatchee. We conclude that the trial court properly granted summary judgment to Douglas County. Douglas County’s contract with Martin Hall as a juvenile facility complies with RCW 13.16.030 requiring Douglas County to maintain a juvenile facility. Therefore, we affirm the summary judgment.

FACTS

¶2 In 1996, Douglas County entered into an interlocal juvenile detention facility contract with eight other counties: Adams, Asotin, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens, and Whitman. The counties agreed to jointly own, operate, and maintain a juvenile facility in Medical Lake, known as Martin Hall. Martin Hall is Douglas County’s designated juvenile facility and is located approximately 158 miles from East Wenatchee.

¶3 Chelan County contractually agreed to temporarily detain juveniles arrested in Douglas County at the Chelan [525]*525County juvenile detention facility until the juvenile’s release on bail or preliminary appearance, whichever happened first. If the court ordered the juvenile to remain in custody following the preliminary appearance, Douglas County would provide transportation to Martin Hall. Douglas County paid Chelan County $110 per day for temporarily detaining juveniles under this agreement. The Chelan County juvenile detention facility is located approximately three miles from East Wenatchee.

¶4 Until late 2005, Douglas County allowed East Wenatchee’s police officers to place juveniles at the Chelan County facility, and Douglas County paid for the temporary detention of these juveniles. In a letter dated December 5, 2005, Douglas County commissioners explained to East Wenatchee that “East Wenatchee has approximately 70% of the temporary detention/bookings under the Chelan County contract, even though East Wenatchee has less than one-fourth the population within Douglas County.” Clerk’s Papers at 20. In the same letter, Douglas County informed East Wenatchee that in light of these continuing, unreasonable financial impacts on Douglas County, the agreement to detain juveniles at the Chelan County facility was immediately restricted to use by only Douglas County sheriff’s deputies. East Wenatchee was informed it could use Martin Hall for temporary juvenile booking and detention without charge.

¶5 In 2007, East Wenatchee officers took a 13-year-old boy to the Chelan County facility. The boy’s admission to the facility was rejected because he was not brought to the facility by a Douglas County deputy. Douglas County’s prosecuting attorney, Steven Clem, again wrote a letter to Mayor Steven Lacy reiterating that Martin Hall was Douglas County’s designated juvenile detention facility and that East Wenatchee had two choices regarding juvenile detention: either East Wenatchee could transport an arrested juvenile to Martin Hall and incur no booking or detention costs, or East Wenatchee could incur booking and detention costs by contracting with Chelan County, as [526]*526Douglas County had done, to provide temporary detention for juveniles. Subsequently, East Wenatchee entered into an agreement with Chelan County and has been using the Chelan County facility to temporarily detain juveniles arrested by East Wenatchee’s police officers until they are released or transported to Martin Hall.

¶6 East Wenatchee filed suit on October 23, 2008. East Wenatchee requested that the court order Douglas County to pay for the temporary housing of juveniles arrested within East Wenatchee and to pay for the cost of transporting juveniles from East Wenatchee to Martin Hall.

¶7 East Wenatchee and Douglas County filed cross motions for summary judgment. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Douglas County, holding that Douglas County’s juvenile detention facility was Martin Hall and that Douglas County had no financial responsibility if East Wenatchee’s police officers delivered juveniles to the Chelan County facility instead of Martin Hall.

¶8 East Wenatchee appeals.

ANALYSIS

¶9 This court reviews summary judgment de novo. The moving party bears the burden of showing that there are no issues of material fact. The nonmoving party then has the opportunity to set forth specific facts showing there are genuine issues of material fact. The court views all evidence and inferences that can be drawn from the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Whatcom County v. City of Bellingham, 128 Wn.2d 537, 549, 909 P.2d 1303 (1996).

¶10 East Wenatchee asserts that Douglas County should pay for the confinement of arrested juveniles whenever those juveniles are booked into the Chelan County juvenile detention facility. Douglas County argues that East Wenatchee is not utilizing Douglas County’s designated juvenile facility, Martin Hall, and, therefore, Douglas County should not be responsible for costs of confinement [527]*527when East Wenatchee chooses to take arrested juveniles to the Chelan County facility.

¶11 In statutory interpretation, the court looks first to the plain meaning of the statute. If the statute is unambiguous, the court looks no further and applies the statute as stated. Bercier v. Kiga, 127 Wn. App. 809, 815-16, 103 P.3d 232 (2004). If the literal reading of the statute results in unlikely, absurd, or strained consequences, the purpose of the statute should prevail over the express but inept wording. Whatcom County, 128 Wn.2d at 546. The court should determine legislative intent within the context of the entire statute and should interpret the statute so that no portion is rendered meaningless or superfluous. Id.

¶12 RCW 13.16.030 states in its entirety:

The construction, acquisition and maintenance of juvenile detention facilities for dependent, wayward and delinquent children, separate and apart from the detention facilities for adults, is hereby declared to be a mandatory function of the several counties of the state.

¶13 There is no dispute that Douglas County maintains a juvenile detention facility, Martin Hall, in Medical Lake. Douglas County pays for booking and detention costs at Martin Hall. Douglas County has shown that it is in compliance with RCW 13.16.030 and asserts there are no genuine issues of material fact and, therefore, the trial court properly granted summary judgment.

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Related

Whatcom County v. City of Bellingham
909 P.2d 1303 (Washington Supreme Court, 1996)
Bercier v. Kiga
103 P.3d 232 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2004)
Bercier v. Kiga
127 Wash. App. 809 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
156 Wash. App. 523, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-east-wenatchee-v-douglas-county-washctapp-2010.