Spokane Airports v. RMA, Inc.

149 Wash. App. 930
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedApril 28, 2009
DocketNo. 26538-2-III
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 149 Wash. App. 930 (Spokane Airports v. RMA, Inc.) 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
Spokane Airports v. RMA, Inc., 149 Wash. App. 930 (Wash. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

¶1 Authority to condemn property for a public purpose is vested in the government. RCW 14.07.020 (empowering municipalities to acquire land by eminent domain for airport purposes). Here, an entity called Spokane Airports attempted to condemn property necessary for airport improvements. We conclude that Spokane Airports did not have the authority to do that, and we reverse and dismiss this condemnation action.

Sweeney, J.

[933]*933FACTS

¶2 The city of Spokane (City) and Spokane County (County) jointly operate Spokane International Airport. They entered into a joint agreement that empowered a board — the Spokane Airport Board — to operate, maintain, and develop Spokane International and other airports.

¶3 RMA, Inc., d/b/a Spokane Airways, is a fixed base operation at Spokane International. Fixed base operators provide support and maintenance services to private and commercial aircraft carriers from airport property. By 2006, RMA leased nine buildings from the Airport Board for its operations.

¶4 The Spokane Airport Board began work to construct a new air traffic control tower at Spokane International in 2006. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) required that a line of sight from the tower be cleared, and this required that a number of buildings at Spokane International be removed, including a number leased to RMA. The City and the County passed a resolution on October 2, 2006, condemning the leases between the Airport Board and RMA.

¶5 “Spokane Airports, a Joint Operation with the City of Spokane and the County of Spokane,” sued to condemn RMA’s leasehold interests for six affected buildings. Clerk’s Papers (CP) at 4. Spokane Airports1 then moved for a judicial determination of public use and necessity. The parties negotiated and stipulated to public use and necessity on December 22, 2006. The superior court entered a stipulated order for immediate possession and use on January 11, 2007. The two stipulated orders required RMA to vacate the subject property by March 20, 2007, and [934]*934enabled Spokane Airports to construct and operate the new aviation control tower.

¶6 RMA sued Spokane Airports for declaratory relief, breach of contract, and inverse condemnation on April 12, 2007. It claimed the benefit of a number of provisions in its leases with the City and the County and specifically the right to insist that they provide other space on the airport grounds for RMA’s operations. Spokane Airports moved to consolidate RMA’s contract claims with the condemnation action. RMA opposed consolidation. The superior court ordered the condemnation and contract claims consolidated.

¶7 Spokane Airports next moved to dismiss RMA’s suit for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The trial court granted the motion as to RMA’s inverse condemnation claim. But the court refused to dismiss the contract claims. It concluded that the stipulated orders of use and necessity took RMA’s possessory interest in the property only.

¶8 Spokane Airports moved in August 2007 for a supplemental order of public use and necessity to expand Spokane Airports’ take to include all rights arising out of the leases between the Airport Board and RMA. The court denied Spokane Airports’ motion for a supplemental order in a letter ruling on September 27, 2007. The court concluded that the December 22, 2006, order adjudicating public use and necessity condemned only the possessory interest under the leases, “leaving the balance of the lease [s] intact.” CP at 411. The superior court further noted: RMA had relinquished possession of the property; Spokane Airports had demolished the buildings; and the FAA had declared the fully constructed control tower operational. Ex post expansion of the order of public use and necessity, the court concluded, “provides no legitimate purpose.” CP at 411. The court then denied Spokane Airports’ motion. The order also bifurcated the eminent domain and breach of contract compensation issues for trial.

[935]*935¶9 Spokane Airports appealed the order denying its motion for a supplemental order adjudicating public use and necessity and bifurcating the consolidated cases for trial. RMA moved this court to dismiss Spokane Airports’ appeal, contending that the superior court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to consider Spokane Airports’ petition for condemnation because Spokane Airports lacked the sovereign’s power of eminent domain.

¶10 A commissioner of this court denied RMA’s motion to dismiss. RMA then filed a “Supplemental Respondent’s Brief” in which RMA incorporated by reference and asked us to consider its motion to dismiss this suit. Spokane Airports moved to strike RMA’s supplemental brief. It argued that RMA inappropriately incorporated documents that were not included in the appellate record. RMA responded and moved to supplement the record with the appendices that RMA had included in its motions before the commissioner but had not included in the Clerk’s Papers on appeal. Spokane Airports objected.

¶11 Spokane Airports’ appeal, RMA’s motion to supplement the record, and Spokane Airports’ motion to strike are all now before us.

DISCUSSION

Supplemental Brief

¶12 Spokane Airports first asks us to strike RMA’s supplemental brief because it includes issues not argued in RMA’s appellate brief and not found in the record on appeal. Spokane Airports argues that the rules on appeal do not accommodate a “Supplemental Respondent’s Brief.”

¶13 RMA responds that it has moved in three separate ways for us to consider RMA’s challenge to the court’s subject matter jurisdiction. Yet, it continues, the argument has still not been argued or considered on its merits. And RMA argues that lack of subject matter jurisdiction may not be waived and may be raised for the first time on appeal.

[936]*936¶14 A commissioner of this court denied RMA’s motion to dismiss after she concluded that only a panel of judges has the authority to grant that relief. Commissioner’s Ruling, Spokane Airports v. RMA, Inc., No. 26538-2-III (Wash. Ct. App. July 17, 2008); see RAP 17.1(a). She also directed the clerk of the court to set the matter before a panel of judges. Commissioner’s Ruling, Spokane Airports v. RMA, Inc., No. 26538-2-III (Wash. Ct. App. Jan. 12, 2009). There has, then, been no resolution of RMA’s jurisdictional challenge. And the challenge is properly before us.

¶15 RAP 17.4(a) (procedure and timeline for filing and serving a motion) and RAP 18.14 (procedure and requirements for motions on the merits) do not prohibit our consideration of the question, as Spokane Airports suggests. And RMA’s “Brief on the Merits” raises its objection to the court’s subject matter jurisdiction:

This action was not [brought by the City and the County], and it must be dismissed. These issues are more fully developed in RMA’s motion to dismiss and will not be reiterated herein. However, it is important to note that the arguments made in this brief apply only in the alternative - that is, in a contra-factual world where Spokane Airports is a proper condemnor.

Br. of Resp’t at 2.

¶16 RMA’s supplemental respondent’s brief merely formalizes and clarifies what was already before us.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
149 Wash. App. 930, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spokane-airports-v-rma-inc-washctapp-2009.