Upper Platte & Beaver Canal Co. v. Riverview Commons General Improvement District

250 P.3d 711, 2010 Colo. App. LEXIS 496, 2010 WL 1491635
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 15, 2010
Docket09CA0769
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 250 P.3d 711 (Upper Platte & Beaver Canal Co. v. Riverview Commons General Improvement District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Upper Platte & Beaver Canal Co. v. Riverview Commons General Improvement District, 250 P.3d 711, 2010 Colo. App. LEXIS 496, 2010 WL 1491635 (Colo. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge WEBB.

This dispute over interference with an easement juxtaposes the property rights of plaintiff, Upper Platte and Beaver Canal Company (Company), which holds the dominant estate, and the immunity from tort liability under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, §§ 24-10-101 to ~120, C.R.S. 2009 (CGIA), of defendants, Riverview Commons General Improvement District and the City of Fort Morgan (collectively, City)1, [713]*713which own the servient estate. We agree with the trial court that the CGIA does not bar the Company's claims for declaratory, injunctive, and restorative relief concerning City property on which the easements allegedly have been altered and obstructed. Therefore, on the City's interlocutory appeal of the order denying its motion to dismiss under the CGIA, we affirm.

I. FACTS

The trial court neither held an evidentiary hearing under Trinity Broadcasting of Denver, Inc. v. City of Westminster, 848 P.2d 916, 927 (Colo.1993), nor made findings resolving contested factual issues. Based on the documents submitted in connection with the motion to dismiss and the parties' appellate briefs, the following facts appear to be undisputed.

The Company holds easements to carry water through its ditch and to access the ditch for maintenance. In 2008, defendant Seagull-Fort Morgan, L.L.C. (not a party to this appeal), began a residential development on property through which the ditch runs. The final plat of the development, recorded in 2004, dedicates and conveys all streets and alleys to the City, subject to existing but unspecified easements. Seagull graded Canal Street, which parallels the ditch on its north bank. Later, Seagull paved Canal Street. Whether these actions occurred before or after the City accepted the dedication in the final plat is unclear.

The complaint alleges that these changes to Canal Street lowered and narrowed the ditch's north bank, thereby impairing the Company's ability to access the ditch with maintenance equipment and increasing the risk of overflow. In moving to dismiss, the City did not challenge these allegations, nor does it do so on appeal.

When negotiations to protect its easements rights failed, the Company brought this action against Seagull for trespass and later joined the City. As against the City, the amended complaint seeks declaratory, infunc-tive, and restorative relief:

66. [Bly accepting the dedication of Canal Street and/or the conveyance of Canal Street by other means as constructed by Seagull, the GID and the City have created uncertainty and insecurity with respect to the Company's rights in the Canal right-of-way and the Access and Use Easement.
[[Image here]]
68. The Company therefore seeks a declaratory judgment ... determining that the Defendants have no interest, estate, claim, or right that permits them to alter the banks of the Canal or to prevent the proper maintenance of the Canal and forever barring and enjoining the Defendants from interfering with Plaintiff's rights to the Canal right-of-way and Access and Use Easement; permitting and providing for the restoration of the Canal banks to their pre-existing condition; and for such other relief as the Court may deem proper.

IIL LAW

We begin by examining the seope of immunity under the CGIA. In CGIA cases, we defer to the trial court's factual findings if supported by the record, but interpret the statute de novo. Rector v. City and County of Denver, 122 P.3d 1010, 10183 (Colo.App. 2005). We then consider principles of property law that protect easement holders.

A. -Application of the CGIA to Bar Declaratory and Equitable Claims

Subject to limited exceptions not relevant here, the CGIA bars claims that "lie[ ] . or could lie in tort." Colorado Department of Transportation v. Brown Group Retail, Inc, 182 P.8d 687, 690 (Colo.2008). "However, the exact seope of governmental immunity under the Act is difficult to define because the meanings of the terms 'tort' and 'could le in tort' are vague." City of Colorado Springs v. Commers, 998 P.2d 1167, 1172 (Colo.2000). Where the claims pleaded are not typical tort claims, our supreme court has undertaken a multifaceted inquiry, using a case-by-case approach based on "a close examination of the pleadings and undisputed evidence." Robinson v. Colorado State Lottery Division, 179 P.8d 998, 1004 (Colo.2008).

,

[714]*714"Although the nature of the relief requested is not dispositive ... [it] informs our understanding of the nature of the injury and the duty allegedly breached." Id. at 1003. "[The question of coverage by the Act ultimately turns on the source and nature of the government's liability, or the nature of the duty from the breach of which Hability arises." Brown Group, 182 P.3d at 690. Immunity exists when the injury arises "out of the breach of a duty recognized in tort law, and when the relief seeks to compensate the plaintiff for that injury." Robinson, 179 P.3d at 1008.

In Conners, 998 P.2d at 1174, the court held that the CGIA does not bar statutory claims that are equitable because immunity under the Act is from "actions seeking compensatory damages for personal injuries." But the Robinson court cautioned that "Con-ners does not stand for the proposition that the CGIA will never bar claims for equitable relief because they are not claims for compensatory relief." 179 P.3d at 1006.

Whether the CGIA bars all claims for declaratory relief and common law injunctive relief has not been resolved. Robinson, 179 P.3d at 1006 n. 6 ("Thus, we do not consider today whether a non-compensatory claim for declaratory or injunctive relief would be barred by the CGIA."); see also Brown Group, 182 P.3d at 691 ("[We have never suggested that claims for relief developed and historically administered by courts of chancery or equity, rather than courts of law, necessarily fall outside the coverage of the Act.").

Brown Growp held that the CGIA barred a claim for a declaration that a state agency "[was] responsible for a pro rata share of past, present, and future costs" to remediate groundwater contamination. 182 P.3d at 691. The court emphasized that this claim, as well as claims for contribution and unjust enrichment that also were barred, "could succeed only upon a demonstration of{ ] the Department's liability for tortious conduct." Id.

In CAMAS Colorado, Inc. v. Board of County Commissioners, 36 P.3d 135, 139 (Colo.App.2001), the division held that claims for injunctive relief arising from contract do not lie in tort for CGIA purposes. See also Forest View Acres Water District v. Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners, 968 P.2d 168, 173 (Colo.App.1998) (request for restoration to the status quo ante if contract voided not a claim that lies in tort for CGIA purposes); but see Arabasz v. Schwartzberg, 943 P.2d 463, 465 (Colo.App.1996) (equitable estoppel claim based on misrepresentations of a governmental entity barred by CGIA). Any tension between CAMAS Colorado and Arabasz can be resolved on the basis that the former involved only a contract, while the latter dealt with conduct that could support a tort claim.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Grand Junction v. City of Grand Junction
Colorado Court of Appeals, 2026
Family v. Pomeroy
2021 COA 73 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2021)
Rinker v. Colina-Lee
2019 COA 45 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2019)
Open Door Ministries v. Lipschuetz
2016 CO 37 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
250 P.3d 711, 2010 Colo. App. LEXIS 496, 2010 WL 1491635, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/upper-platte-beaver-canal-co-v-riverview-commons-general-improvement-coloctapp-2010.