MARY'S BAKE SHOPPE v. City of Cheyenne

2008 WY 116, 193 P.3d 252, 2008 Wyo. LEXIS 121, 2008 WL 4453428
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 6, 2008
DocketS-07-0243
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 2008 WY 116 (MARY'S BAKE SHOPPE v. City of Cheyenne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
MARY'S BAKE SHOPPE v. City of Cheyenne, 2008 WY 116, 193 P.3d 252, 2008 Wyo. LEXIS 121, 2008 WL 4453428 (Wyo. 2008).

Opinion

GOLDEN, Justice.

[T1] Mary Coonts owned and operated a business known as Mary's Bake Shoppe. She also owned the building housing her business. In 2004, the building was severely damaged by fire. The City of Cheyenne determined the fire-damaged building posed a hazard to people's health and safety and notified Coonts that it was condemning the building. Shortly after Coonts received the first notice of condemnation, the City decided the building's condition had deteriorated to the point where it posed an immediate threat and would have to be demolished on an emergency basis. Since Coonts had not contacted the City regarding demolition, the City hired its own contractor. The City held Coonts responsible for the costs of demolition and removal of her building.

[12] Coonts failed to pay the costs of demolition, leading the City to file the instant civil action. The City's action included a claim for repayment of demolition costs and for the foreclosure of its cost-of-demolition lien. The district court granted summary *255 judgment to the City on its claims. We affirm.

ISSUES

[13] Coonts presents the following three statements as her issues:

ISSUE I; It was error for the District Court to grant Summary Judgment to Ap-pellee, because the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, together with the affidavits, showed that there were genuine issues as to material facts and that Appellee was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
ISSUE II: It was error for the District Court not to grant Summary Judgment to Appellants, because the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, together with the affidavits, showed that Appellee could not prevail in a trial on the merits, so that Appellants were entitled to Summary Judgment as a matter of law.
ISSUE III: It was error and an abuse of discretion for the District Court not to grant Appellants' DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO COMPEL DISCOVERY in full, because by Appellee City's withholding most of the investigative reports sought by Appellants' MOTION and the District Court's denial of access to all but a very small portion of those investigative reports, Appellants were denied due process and were unable to effectively defend.

[T4] Issues I and II are too broad to be usefal. The language does nothing more than remind us that this appeal is from the grant of a summary judgment against Coonts. The presentation of such broad issues is exactly what Wyoming Rule of Appellate Procedure 7.01(d) is intended to prevent. 1 The Rule exists to provide a direct roadmap to this Court of the coming arguments. In the instant appeal, because there is no appropriate listing of the issues, this Court is put in the highly undesirable position of having to independently seour Coonts' brief in order to determine her specific allegations of error. We will do our best to determine Coonts' points of error, but Coonts bears the risk that we might miss something buried in her brief. 2

FACTS

[15] A structural fire on December 27, 2004, severely damaged two adjoined buildings in the 200 block of West 16th Street in Cheyenne. One building was owned by Mary Coonts and housed her business known as Mary's Bake Shoppe. The other building housed a business known as Wyoming Home. On December 28, at the request of the City's Chief Building Officer (CBO), Bruce Wilson, a structural engineer, Robert Clary, inspected the damaged buildings. Clary concluded both buildings would have to be demolished. He expressly pointed out that the roof and certain walls of Coonts' building were unstable and it was probable they would collapse. Numerous photos, taken December 28, 2004, were attached to his written report.

[T6] On January 6, 2005, Coonts attended a meeting for the fire-affected property owners. The meeting was attended by several city officials, including CBO Wilson and Clary. During the meeting, CBO Wilson confirmed that Coonts' building would have to be demolished.

[17] Early in January, the owner of the Wyoming Home building hired Spiegelberg Lumber & Building Co. to perform the demolition of her building. On January 20, 2005, Coonts contacted Spiegelberg for a bid for the demolition of her building. On January 21, Clary reinspected the buildings. Clary wrote Speigelberg on January 28, confirming Coonts' building required complete demolition. Clary stated: "The east part of the site, Mary's Bake Shoppe, is totally destroyed by fire and what hasn't collapsed will eventually."

[18] On January 26, Spiegelberg delivered its bid to Coonts. The amount of the bid was $78,750.00 to $81,575.00. The price did not include the cost of the building per *256 mit or "concrete slab removal, foundations, footings, shoring or selective demolition that will occur at the saweutting areas at adjacent buildings." It also did not include ten percent overhead profit to be added to the final bill. Finally, the bid was based on an anticipated ten calendar day schedule. The bid provided for a charge of $130.00 per day for any subsequent days. Coonts immediately emailed Spiegelberg and told him she was going to procure a second bid before deciding on whether to accept its bid. On January 28, Coonts met at the building site with a representative from S & S Builders, LLC, to obtain a demolition bid from it. S & S submitted its bid later that afternoon for $114,426.00, for "demolition down to the existing basement floor." Coonts never accepted either bid.

[19] On January 28, Spiegelberg began demolition work on the Wyoming Home building. CBO Wilson decided that he could no longer wait for Coonts to arrange for the demolition of her building on her own accord. Therefore, he issued a formal Notice and Order of condemnation. The Notice and Order, dated January 28, 2005, gave Coonts two days to obtain necessary permits to demolish and remove the structure and fourteen days to complete demolition. The notice also informed Coonts she had the right to appeal the order to the City Board of Appeals within twenty days. The Notice and Order was hand-delivered to Coonts' attorney the same day, and Coonts was immediately informed of it. CBO Wilson never received any response from Coonts to the Notice and Order.

[T10] On February 8, 2005, CBO Wilson returned to the building site. He had a continuing concern about the unstable walls and roof of Coonts' building. The risk of collapse of these structures had been increased by the freeze and thaw cycle to which the building had been subjected. Given these conditions, and after further inspecting the building, CBO Wilson determined that the building condition had deteriorated to the point where it posed an imminent danger to public safety. He issued an emergency condemnation Notice and Order.

[T11] This new Notice and Order informed Coonts that CBO Wilson had reinspected the building and determined demolition had to begin immediately because of the building's dangerous condition.

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Bluebook (online)
2008 WY 116, 193 P.3d 252, 2008 Wyo. LEXIS 121, 2008 WL 4453428, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marys-bake-shoppe-v-city-of-cheyenne-wyo-2008.