STATE EX REL. SCHOOL & INST. TRUST LAND ADMN. v. Mathis

2009 UT 85, 223 P.3d 1119
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 18, 2009
Docket20070910
StatusPublished

This text of 2009 UT 85 (STATE EX REL. SCHOOL & INST. TRUST LAND ADMN. v. Mathis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
STATE EX REL. SCHOOL & INST. TRUST LAND ADMN. v. Mathis, 2009 UT 85, 223 P.3d 1119 (Utah 2009).

Opinion

223 P.3d 1119 (2009)
2009 UT 85

STATE of Utah, acting by and through the SCHOOL & INSTITUTIONAL TRUST LAND ADMINISTRATION, Plaintiff and Appellant,
v.
Rex Morrell MATHIS; JoAnn L. Mathis-Ross; William Dale Mathis; Mark Pickup; Shawnda Pickup Cave; Mathis Land, Inc., a Utah corporation; Buck Creek, LLC, a Utah limited liability company; Mountain Mineral Resources, LLC, a Utah limited company; John Does 1-10, Defendants and Appellees.

No. 20070910.

Supreme Court of Utah.

December 18, 2009.

*1120 Mark L. Shurtleff, Att'y Gen., Thomas A. Mitchell, Erin M. Arnold, Asst. Att'ys Gen., Salt Lake City, for plaintiff.

Ronald G. Russell, Daniel A. Jensen, Royce B. Covington, Salt Lake City, for defendants.

INTRODUCTION

DURRANT, Associate Chief Justice:

¶ 1 Section 78B-2-201 of the Utah Code prohibits the State of Utah from bringing any "action . . . for or with respect to any real property, its issues or profits, based upon the state's right or title to the real property, unless . . . the right or title to the property accrued within seven years before any action or other proceeding is commenced."[1] In this case, the State, acting through the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (the "State"), seeks to void, and recover damages based on, its own conveyance of school trust lands made nearly 90 years ago.

¶ 2 The parties do not dispute that section 78B-2-201 would operate to bar the State's claim against the Mathises in this case. But the parties do dispute whether the seven-year statute of limitations found in section 78B-2-201 may be constitutionally applied to preclude the State from attempting to obtain full value for school trust lands. Accordingly, the sole question we must decide is whether the State's constitutional appointment as trustee over school trust lands exempts it from statutes of limitations in actions involving school trust lands.[2] Because we hold that section 78B-2-201 may constitutionally be applied to the State's challenge, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the Mathises.

BACKGROUND

¶ 3 The Mathis Property was part of the trust lands originally granted to Utah for the support of the public schools by Congress in 1896.[3] On February 5, 1905, the State entered into an agreement to sell the Mathis Property to Clarence B. Milner for $1.50 per acre, which was the then-standard price for nonmineral grazing land. Mr. Milner subsequently assigned his rights in the Mathis Property to Carbon County Land Company ("CCLC"). After receiving payment for the Mathis Property, the State conveyed the land to CCLC by patent on February 28, 1912. The State's conveyance included no reservation of mineral rights.

¶ 4 In 1918, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in United States v. Sweet, that, in light of legislative history and congressional policy, the Utah Enabling Act could not be interpreted as having passed title to Utah of any lands that were of known mineral character at the time of statehood.[4] As a result, *1121 in June 1924, the United States Department of the Interior General Land Office ordered the commencement of administrative proceedings to determine whether several sections of land in Carbon County, including the Mathis Property, were lands of known mineral character in 1896. On September 8, 1926, the Secretary of the Interior issued a final order ruling that the Mathis Property was of known mineral character at the time Utah achieved statehood, and, therefore, that title to the Mathis Property had never passed to the State and that Utah's conveyance of the property to CCLC was invalid. Shortly after this administrative ruling, CCLC ceased paying taxes on the Mathis Property.

¶ 5 Due to the confusion engendered by the Supreme Court's 1918 ruling, Congress passed the Jones Act in 1927.[5] The Jones Act attempted to resolve the confusion by granting title to all school trust lands—regardless of whether they were of known mineral character at the time of statehood or not—to the states on the express condition that the states retain all mineral rights in the lands.[6]

¶ 6 Carbon County appears to have assumed that the Jones Act validated the State's original conveyance of the Mathis Property to CCLC through the doctrine of after-acquired title.[7] Accordingly, on May 28, 1932, the Carbon County Treasurer sold the Mathis Property to Carbon County to offset CCLC's unpaid taxes. Subsequently, Carbon County sold the Mathis Property to Rex Mathis in May of 1938. Since that time, Mr. Mathis and his heirs have paid taxes on the property, leased the mineral estate, and, in all other relevant ways, acted in a manner consistent with ownership of the property.

¶ 7 On January 1, 1998, the Mathises entered into an underground coal lease agreement with Andalex Resources. The State became aware of this lease agreement in 2002. In a letter to the Mathises dated February 3, 2004, the State, for the first time, asserted ownership of the Mathis Property. On March 14, 2005, the State brought this action (1) seeking to quiet title in the mineral estate of the Mathis Property and (2) seeking an accounting of proceeds from the mineral estate.

¶ 8 Both sides filed motions for summary judgment. The district court granted the Mathises' motion, finding that the State's claims were barred by the seven-year statute of limitations found in section 78B-2-201. The State timely appealed, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to section 78A-3-102(3)(j) of the Utah Code.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 9 Summary judgment is appropriate only where "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law."[8] In resolving motions for summary judgment, the court views "`the facts and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.'"[9]

¶ 10 We review a district court's decision to grant summary judgment for correctness, with no deference to the district court's conclusions.[10] Our review is limited to determining whether the district court correctly applied the summary judgment standard in light of the undisputed material facts.[11]

*1122 ANALYSIS

¶ 11 In order to authorize Utah's entry into the Union, Congress passed the Utah Enabling Act,[12] which set out the terms and conditions upon which Utah could be admitted as a state.[13] The Enabling Act provided that, upon Utah's admission into the Union, sections 2, 16, 32, and 36 of each township within Utah's borders would be "granted to [the State] for the support of the common schools,"[14] and "[t]hat the proceeds of lands... granted for educational purposes ... [would] constitute a permanent school fund."[15] The Enabling Act expressly limited the use of "the lands granted ... exclusively for the purposes [t]herein mentioned."[16]

¶ 12 The requirements of the Enabling Act were incorporated into section 2 of article XX of the Utah Constitution, which currently provides as follows:

Lands granted to the State under Sections 6, 8, and 12 of the Utah Enabling Act, and other lands which may be added to those lands pursuant to those sections through purchase, exchange, or other means, are declared to be school and institutional trust lands, held in trust by the State for the respective beneficiaries and purposes stated in the Enabling Act grants.[17]

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Bluebook (online)
2009 UT 85, 223 P.3d 1119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-school-inst-trust-land-admn-v-mathis-utah-2009.