Leonard & Karl Marino, Appellant's V. Central Puget Sound Regional Transit, Resp

CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedSeptember 26, 2022
Docket82426-1
StatusUnpublished

This text of Leonard & Karl Marino, Appellant's V. Central Puget Sound Regional Transit, Resp (Leonard & Karl Marino, Appellant's V. Central Puget Sound Regional Transit, Resp) 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
Leonard & Karl Marino, Appellant's V. Central Puget Sound Regional Transit, Resp, (Wash. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON CENTRAL PUGET SOUND REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY, a regional transit No. 82426-1-I authority, dba SOUND TRANSIT, DIVISION ONE Respondent, v. LEONARD S. & KARI C. MARINO (EL169 & 13 EL806), individually and the marital UNPUBLISHED OPINION community composed thereof,† Defendants,

IRIS GUY & JANE/JOHN DOE GUY (EL638), individually and the marital community composed thereof; MARK S. & REGINA C. HANLON (EL666), individually and the marital community composed thereof; ADAM SHAFER & HOLLY HART- SHAFER (EL679), individually and the marital community composed thereof; SUNG GON MAENG & JINSUN BAE (EL739), individually and the marital community composed thereof; CHRISTOPHER SMITH & LEAH ANDERSON (EL776), individually and the marital community composed thereof; DAVID K. & NATIVIDAD M. SOIKE (EL778), individually and the marital community composed thereof; MARTIN W. & HEATHER H. YAMAMOTO (EL874), individually and the marital community composed thereof; and OLGA RUZAEVA and JANE/JOHN DOE RUZAEVA (EL875), individually and the marital community composed thereof, Appellants.

† See Appendix for a list of all Defendants.

Citations and pin cites are based on the Westlaw online version of the cited material. No. 82426-1-I/2

SMITH, A.C.J. —Central Puget Sound Regional Transit (Sound Transit),

seeking to construct a light rail station, purchased property in Bellevue’s Surrey

Downs neighborhood. This property was encumbered by “Covenants,

Conditions, and Restrictions” (CC&Rs) prohibiting Sound Transit’s intended use,

and the agency therefore began a condemnation action to remove those

restrictions. Before the case went to trial, Sound Transit acquired the votes it

needed to amend the CC&Rs and dismissed the case. Its dismissal was vacated

after a collection of owners argued that the agency had abandoned the case and

they were owed fees and costs as a result. The matter then proceeded to trial

under two theories of liability: that Sound Transit committed a taking by engaging

in construction activities on its property before amending the CC&Rs, and that it

committed a taking by denying the owners their ability to enforce the CC&Rs. A

jury awarded the owners $1,000 each.

On appeal, the owners contest a number of rulings by the trial court.

Finding no merit to their arguments, we affirm. FACTS Sound Transit Initiates Condemnation Action

The Surrey Downs neighborhood comprises four plats, subdivisions that

include multiple properties: Hearthstone Addition Part No. 1, Hearthstone

Addition Part No. 2, Surrey Downs Addition No. 1, and Surrey Downs Addition

No. 2. Each of these plats is governed by certain CC&Rs. Each CC&R, among

other restrictions, limits its constituent properties to residential use.

2 No. 82426-1-I/3

Sound Transit initiated this proceeding in April 2016 when it filed an

eminent domain petition to amend the CC&Rs.1 The CC&Rs’ residential use

restrictions blocked Sound Transit’s intended use of land it had purchased at the

edge of the neighborhood: construction of a light rail station. Sound Transit’s

goal in filing the petition was to remove the residential use restrictions as they

applied to the property on which it planned construction. It therefore sought to

“ascertain the just compensation for the taking and damaging” effected by the

amendment of the covenants.

Some property owners—all located within the Surrey Downs No. 1 and

Surrey Downs No. 2 plats—opposed the condemnation.2 In a June 2017

summary judgment motion they asserted that even were Sound Transit to

prevail, it would not have acquired the rights needed to operate the planned light

rail station. They argued that private easements and noise and vibration

restrictions of the CC&Rs were independent bars to the station’s construction,

and they requested compensation for these additional alleged takings. They did

not prevail on their motion and their petition for discretionary review was denied.

Meanwhile, over the course of roughly two years following the petition’s

filing, Sound Transit had voluntarily dismissed many of the named respondents—

of which there were initially close to two hundred—after reaching private

agreements with them. It obtained property rights of other respondents by

1 The action never addressed Hearthstone Addition Part No. 1’s CC&R

because Sound Transit had already acquired the ability to modify it. 2 Sound Transit, appraising the change in value of the properties at $0,

offered $300 in compensation per property.

3 No. 82426-1-I/4

default judgment and dismissed them as well. Through this process—and by

virtue of its ownership of the properties it had purchased before filing the

petition—Sound Transit acquired the rights and votes it needed to satisfy the

amendment procedures of the various CC&Rs by early 2018.3 The now

amended CC&Rs read: The HCT Lots may be used for the purpose of allowing the construction, operation and maintenance of a high capacity transit ("HCT") system upon or adjacent to the HCT Lots and for the purpose of preserving the residential nature of the Property on portions of the HCT Lots available for such development after the HCT system is constructed. Except for the HCT purpose described above, the HCT Lots may only be used for residential purposes, and no permanent building may be erected other than a single family dwelling.

Dismissal and Vacation

Having acquired the power to amend the CC&Rs independent of its

condemnation action, Sound Transit moved to voluntarily dismiss the case. The

motion passed without response from the remaining litigating property owners

and was granted by the trial court.

The still-litigating owners then moved for attorney fees and costs under

RCW 8.25.075(1)(b), which directs the court to award condemnees costs and

fees if “[t]he proceeding is abandoned by the condemnor.” The trial court

concluded that the equities supported a theory of abandonment and reserved its

decision on fees. Four days later, before the court had readdressed fees, Sound

Transit moved to vacate the voluntary dismissal order. It argued that vacation

3 The vote threshold needed varied by plat. Surry Downs Additions Nos. 1 and 2 needed 75 percent approval; Hearthstone Additions Nos. 1 and 2 needed only 50 percent.

4 No. 82426-1-I/5

would “cure[] the unintended consequences identified by the Court in the

Abandonment Order,” returning the parties to their respective positions prior to

the dismissal. The trial court agreed and vacated the dismissal. The owners

sought and were denied discretionary review of this ruling.

Claims Brought to Trial

After the reinstatement of the case, a second set of cross-motions for

summary judgment, a corresponding motion to clarify, and motions in limine

refined the claims that would be argued at trial.

Sound Transit, having amended the CC&Rs, did not believe that trial was

necessary. It moved for summary judgment, asking that the court enter an order

determining that the respondents to the condemnation action no longer had

compensable rights because “ ‘the property rights sought to be altered . . . [have]

already been acquired.’ ”

The owners filed a cross-motion, pointing again to other, unamended

provisions in the covenants to assert that the agency was still bound by certain

restrictions.

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