Utah County v. Ivie

2006 UT 33, 137 P.3d 797, 552 Utah Adv. Rep. 71, 2006 Utah LEXIS 92, 2006 WL 1452506
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedMay 26, 2006
Docket20040846
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2006 UT 33 (Utah County v. Ivie) 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
Utah County v. Ivie, 2006 UT 33, 137 P.3d 797, 552 Utah Adv. Rep. 71, 2006 Utah LEXIS 92, 2006 WL 1452506 (Utah 2006).

Opinion

*799 DURRANT, Justice:

1 1 This is the second case in which Appellants (collectively "Spring Canyon") have appeared before us to challenge local governments' attempts to condemn Spring Canyon property for the construction of a road. The road would connect two Provo City streets over an island of unincorporated Utah County. In the first case, Provo City v. Ivie, we held that Provo City did not have the statutory or constitutional power necessary to condemn Spring Canyon's property because the property is located in unincorporated Utah County. 2004 UT 30, 118, 94 P.3d 206. In this case, Spring Canyon disputes Utah County's action to condemn the same property and the district court's decision to grant Utah County immediate occupancy. During the pendency of the appeal in Provo City, Utah County contracted with Provo City ("the Agreement") and agreed to conderan Spring Canyon's property if Provo City would pay the expenses.

12 In this interlocutory appeal, Spring Canyon makes three main claims: first, that the condemnation action should be dismissed because the Agreement either exceeded the contracting parties' authority or evidenced a bad faith attempt to cireumvent our decision in Provo City; second, that the district court improperly granted immediate occupancy because Spring Canyon was deprived of due process when Utah County failed to give notice of its factual basis for seeking immediate occupancy and the district court refused to allow discovery of that basis; and third, that the district court improperly granted immediate occupancy because Utah County's proof of necessity was inadequate.

183 Addressing these issues in turn, we first hold that Utah County and Provo City had authority to enter the Agreement, that this authority was not abrogated by the In-terlocal Cooperation Act, and that the Agreement does not demonstrate bad faith. Second, we do not consider Spring Canyon's claim under the state constitution because Spring Canyon failed to adequately brief it, and we conclude that the federal constitution is satisfied where, as here, there is an adequate mechanism for obtaining compensation. Third, we affirm the district court's order of immediate occupancy because Spring Canyon has not demonstrated that the district court abused its broad discretion in weighing the equities in this case.

BACKGROUND

14 In 1970, Utah County and Provo City first planned to, at some point, build a collector street between Provo Canyon Road at 4525 North and University Avenue at 4800 North. In June of 2002, traffic congestion in the area was such that Provo City instituted a condemnation action to acquire the property needed to build the road. Although the proposed road would connect two Provo City streets, it would cross over an island of unincorporated Utah County land owned by Appellants Kay J. Ivie, Devon R. Ivie, Kristine J. Lee, Edward R. Lee, Spring Canyon Limited Partnership, and Canyon Acres Limited Partnership (collectively "Spring Canyon"). The district court in that case originally granted an order of immediate occupancy, but, following an interlocutory appeal, we reversed the order and held that Provo City did not have the power to condemn land outside its corporate boundaries because (1) Provo is not a charter city and could therefore not avail itself of the extraterritorial condemnation power granted in article XI, section 5(b) of the Utah Constitution, and (2) no other then-existing statute granted them the power to do so. 1 Provo City v. Ivie, 2004 UT 30, ¶ 18, 94 P.3d 206.

1 5 In May of 2003, during the pendency of its appeal, Provo City entered into an agreement with Utah County purportedly under the Interlocal Cooperation Act, Utah Code Ann. §§ 11-13-1011 to -814 (2008 & Supp. 2005) (the "ICA"). The Agreement provided that Utah County would condemn the neces *800 sary property, and Provo City would pay all expenses required to do so. In May of 2004, following the Court's decision in Provo City v. Ivie, Utah County filed the condemnation complaint and motion for order of immediate occupancy that are at issue in this case. Spring Canyon subsequently filed a motion to dismiss based on the theory that Utah County was unlawfully "lendfing] its condemning powers to Provo City." Prior to the September 1, 2004 hearing, Spring Canyon also filed a motion to allow discovery and an objection to the district court's consolidating the hearings for the motion to dismiss and the motion for order of immediate occupancy. On September 14, 2004, the district court denied Spring Canyon's motion to dismiss and issued an order of immediate occupancy in favor of Utah County. Spring Canyon then requested and was granted leave to file this interlocutory appeal to challenge both the denial of its motion to dismiss and the order of immediate occupancy.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

16 Whether Utah County's condemnation action should be dismissed based on the Agreement is an issue of law, so we review the district court's decision for correctness. See Bearden v. Croft, 2001 UT 746, ¶ 5, 31 P.3d 537. The issue of whether Spring Canyon received due process is also an issue of law, so we grant no deference to the district court's decision. Vigil v. Div. of Child & Family Servs., 2005 UT App 48, ¶ 7, 107 P.3d 716.

17 Although both parties to this appeal state that we should review the third issue-whether there was sufficient proof to support the order of immediate occupancy-under a clearly erroncous standard, our prior cases have recognized that weighing the equities of an order of immediate occupancy is largely a discretionary function. Utah State Rd. Comm'n v. Friberg, 687 P.2d 821, 883 (Utah 1984). And we have noted that "[the granting of a motion for immediate occupancy has been held by this court primarily to be {fwithin] the sound discretion of the trial court, reversible only because of obvious abuse thereof" State v. Denver & Rio Grande W. R.R., 8 Utah 2d 286, 332 P.2d 926, 927 (1958). Thus, we apply the abuse of discretion standard to the third issue in this case. We discuss each of these issues in turn.

ANALYSIS

I. UTAH COUNTY'S AGREEMENT WITH PROVO CITY DOES NOT LIMIT ITS POWER TO CONDEMN SPRING CANYON'S PROPERTY

T8 Spring Canyon's appeal of the district court's denial of its motion to dismiss depends entirely on the effect, if any, that the Agreement between Utah County and Provo City has on Utah County's condemnation power. 2 We will first discuss the validity of the Agreement and whether it limits Utah County's condemnation power. We will then discuss whether Utah County satisfied the requirements for exercising its condemnation power under Utah Code section 78-834-4, and specifically whether the existence of the Agreement mandates a finding of bad faith that undermines Utah County's condemnation authority.

A. Utah County and Provo City Were Authorized to Enter into the Agreement Pursuant to Their General Contracting Power

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Bluebook (online)
2006 UT 33, 137 P.3d 797, 552 Utah Adv. Rep. 71, 2006 Utah LEXIS 92, 2006 WL 1452506, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/utah-county-v-ivie-utah-2006.