City of Scottsdale v. Paradise Valley Water Co.

731 P.2d 616, 152 Ariz. 251, 1986 Ariz. App. LEXIS 762
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedAugust 21, 1986
DocketNo. 1 CA-CIV 7968
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 731 P.2d 616 (City of Scottsdale v. Paradise Valley Water Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Scottsdale v. Paradise Valley Water Co., 731 P.2d 616, 152 Ariz. 251, 1986 Ariz. App. LEXIS 762 (Ark. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

JACOBSON, Presiding Judge.

In this appeal, we consider whether the trial court erred in determining that the City of Scottsdale (City) acted in bad faith in abandoning its condemnation suit against the Paradise Valley Water Company (Water Company), thus entitling the Water Company its litigation expenses.

This is the second appeal in this matter. In the first appeal, City of Scottsdale v. Paradise Valley Water Co. (memorandum decision, 1 CA-CIV 4876, 1981) we held that a factual issue was presented as to whether the City’s abandonment of the condemnation proceedings was in bad faith and therefore reversed a summary judgment in the City’s favor. On remand and retrial, the following facts were developed. Between February, 1975 and October, 1977, the City attempted to purchase a portion of the Water Company’s production and distribution facilities serving customers within the City’s boundaries. In January, 1976, the City council decided that it was necessary to acquire those facilities through negotiation or condemnation. As a result of negotiation between the parties, the City council agreed to exclude all of the company’s water production facilities along the Arizona Canal Bank from the City’s proposed acquisition. This concession was made because the Water Company purportedly required these facilities to service its other water customers outside the City’s geographical limits. Thus, the City intended to obtain nothing more than the Water Company’s distribution system.

Based upon these negotiations, the City authorized several feasibility and revenue projection studies, and commissioned an engineer to formulate a design for isolating the Water Company’s facilities from the facilities to be purchased. The Water Company similarly commissioned experts to appraise the property in question. On November 12, 1976, the City offered the Water Company $912,945 for the distribution system, and indicated that if this offer was unacceptable, condemnation proceedings would commence. The Water Company rejected the City’s offer, based upon its own appraisal that fixed the property value at $1,900,000.

Although the City filed a complaint in condemnation on October 12, 1977, negotiations for transferring the Water Company’s facilities continued. During this period, the City’s prospects for obtaining water to utilize the distribution system became a concern, as wells drilled in the McCormick Ranch area proved unproductive. Furthermore, just prior to the City council’s planned finalization of the proposed transfer agreement on May 2, 1978, the council received word that isolating the Water Company’s remaining property would cost approximately $86,000 more than the $341,-590 previously projected. Despite these problems, the city council approved a proposed agreement to acquire the distribution system.

The Water Company modified the proposed agreement, however, by adding a reservation of its rights to drill new wells along the Arizona Canal Bank. This added term presented yet another threat to the City’s domestic water supply. Accordingly, on May 9, several council members indicated a desire to reassess the planned ac[253]*253quisition. The City’s staff then recommended abandoning the condemnation proceedings for various reasons, including the lack of water production facilities within the property to be transferred, the unanticipated increase in the cost of isolating the Water Company’s remaining facilities, and the Water Company’s apparent refusal to negotiate the transfer agreement in a cooperative manner. On May 23, 1978, the City council voted to abandon the condemnation action and thereafter the City filed a motion to dismiss the proceedings. The Water Company filed a response to this motion, requesting an award of all fees, costs and expenses incurred since negotiations for the City’s purchase of its facilities began. After granting the City’s motion to dismiss without a pre-trial conference or hearing relating to attorney’s fees, the trial court granted the Water Company’s motion for reconsideration and allowed the Company to submit an offer of proof. Subsequently, on June 22, 1979, the trial court again granted the City’s motion to dismiss and declined to award expenses to the Water Company. This resulted in the previous appeal and reversal.

In our prior decision, we discussed the Division 2 opinion in Whitestone v. Town of South Tucson, 2 Ariz.App. 494, 410 P.2d 116 (1966). The Whitestone court ruled that:

... [T]he condemnor should carefully investigate to ascertain the value of the property sought to be condemned and should not proceed unless it has the set intention of paying the actual value of the property____ [A] condemnor who dismisses a condemnation action after trial should establish that the refusal to accept the determination of value reached is due to circumstances that it could not reasonably have foreseen, or else it should be held liable for the reasonable attorney’s fees, witness fees and costs of the defendant.

Id. at 496-97, 410 P.2d at 118-19. In our prior memorandum decision addressing the present case, we stated:

Thus, in summary, the general rule is that the condemnee is entitled to costs and fees if:

1. The condemnor acted in bad faith in instituting or in abandoning the proceedings, or
2. the proceedings were not diligently prosecuted.

State v. Helm, ... [86 Ariz. 275, 282, 345 P.2d 202, 206-07 (1959) ]. One application of this standard was used in White-stone where it was held that a dismissal after trial is in bad faith unless the condemnor shows that the refusal to accept the valuation is due to circumstances that it could not have reasonably foreseen.

Id., slip op. at 3, 4 (emphasis added).

On remand, the trial court interpreted our decision to require the application of a foreseeability standard. Thus, the City had to prove that its reasons for abandoning the suit could not have reasonably been foreseen, as the court below indicated:

The Court of Appeals opinion ... states that this cause is controlled by State v. Helm, 86 Ariz. 275, 345 P.2d 202 (1959), and Whitestone v. Town of South Tucson, 2 Ariz.App. 494, 410 P.2d 116 (1966). Although Whitestone and Helm both involve post-trial dismissals by the condemnor, this Court feels bound by the pronouncement of the Court of Appeals in l-CA-CIV-4876, including the pronouncement that the burden of proof is on the condemnor to show that the refusal to accept the evaluation after trial, or paraphrasing the pre-trial dismissal following institution of the litigation, is due to circumstances that it could not have reasonably foreseen.

The trial court found the City failed to sustain its burden of proof, and awarded the Water Company its requested expenses, stating:

This Court does find ... that the five reasons as set forth by the City of Scottsdale for the dismissal of the condemnation proceedings ... are factually and legally insufficient; ... that the City of Scottsdale should have reasonably [254]

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731 P.2d 616, 152 Ariz. 251, 1986 Ariz. App. LEXIS 762, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-scottsdale-v-paradise-valley-water-co-arizctapp-1986.