Whatley v. Summit County Board of County Commissioners

77 P.3d 793, 2003 Colo. App. LEXIS 347
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 13, 2003
DocketNo. 01CA2293
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 77 P.3d 793 (Whatley v. Summit County Board of County Commissioners) 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
Whatley v. Summit County Board of County Commissioners, 77 P.3d 793, 2003 Colo. App. LEXIS 347 (Colo. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge JONES.

In this action, for relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and for declaratory and injunctive relief under C.R.C.P. 57 and 65, plaintiffs, Alfred T. Whatley and his wife, Mary Siek-man (the Whatleys), appeal the summary judgment entered against them and in favor of all defendants, the Summit County Board of County Commissioners and its members, Summit County Upper Blue Planning Commission and its members, and Director of Planning Brian Peters (the county defendants); and Bud & Dot, LL.L.P., and Gary and Naney Carlston (the Carlston defendants). We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

The underlying dispute concerns the development process for approximately 480 acres of land in Summit County. The land, known as the Whatley Ranch, is within a few miles of the town of Breckenridge.

In 1965, Alfred T. Whatley received fee title to the entire tract of land, and in 1987, as the owner and developer of the ranch, Whatley applied for and was granted approval for the rezoning of the ranch from an agricultural status to a planned unit development (PUD). The PUD did not approve extensive development on the land, but merely created separate lots for the three existing log cabins on the ranch. Each of two newer cabins was given its own lot (lots one and two), which together with lot three, containing the original homestead house, made up the remainder of the PUD.

In 1989 and 1990, Whatley obtained amendments to the PUD. By 1990, the net result of the changes was to establish new lot lines on the ranch. Lots one and two remained with their existing structures, and another small, undeveloped lot was created, allowing the addition of one single family home. The cluster of the three small lots became known as the Whatley Reserve. The remainder of the ranch, 475 acres, contained the original homestead house. Thus, the entire ranch was approved to contain four residential units.

As part of a personal bankruptcy proceeding in 1998, the Whatleys sold the entire tract of land to a third party, except that they reserved a life estate for themselves in lot one of the Whatley Reserve, where they continued to live.

[797]*797Soon after the sale, the Whatleys filed suit against the third party, alleging a number of claims related to the sale of the land. As part of the lawsuit, the Whatleys filed a notice of lis pendens, clouding title to the ranch. During the pendency of the lawsuit, the Carlston defendants began negotiating with the third party for the purchase of Whatley Ranch, but the sale could not be closed until title was cleared of the lis pen-dens.

In 1995, to facilitate their purchase of the ranch, the Carlston defendants entered into a settlement agreement with the Whatleys and the third party. As relevant here, the parties agreed that the lis pendens would be released, clearing the title to the land; the Cariston defendants would pay the Whatleys $50,000 and convey to them fee title to lot one of the Whatley Reserve; and the Car-stons would have the right to submit the Whatleys' lot one to rezoning.

In addition, the parties agreed that the Carlstons would pay the Whatleys an additional amount for the sale of the ranch in the event that the Carlstons obtained a rezoning of the land in excess of twenty-four lots; Whatley agreed to execute, at the Carlstons' request, a letter indicating that he consented to the resubdivision of the ranch into ten additional residential units or home sites; and the Whatleys granted the Carlston defendants the option to purchase lot one of the ranch if the Whatleys should choose to sell it, or both died, whichever came first.

Both in 1995, before the Carlston defendants had completed purchase of the ranch, and in 1996, after the Carlstons had purchased the ranch under their new business entity, Bud & Dot, LLLP., and had transferred title to lot one to the Whatleys, the Carlston defendants applied for and received county approval for amendments to the Whatley Ranch PUD. The amendments changed lot lines, increased the number of permitted home sites, and altered several other aspects of the ranch.

The Whatleys were not aware of these amendments until 1997. In 1999, they initiated this action in the trial court. In their amended complaint, the Whatleys' first claim sought injunctive relief under C.R.C.P. 106, alleging that county officials had acted outside the scope of their authority in approving the amendments; their second claim sought damages and attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging generally that the defendants' failures to obtain the Whatleys' consent or give them notice of the PUD amendments violated the Whatleys' rights to procedural due process; and their third claim sought declaratory and injunctive relief under C.R.C.P. 57 and 65 for the allegedly improper manner in which the amendments were enacted.

The county defendants filed a motion for partial dismissal of the Whatleys' first and second claims for relief. The court granted the motion as to the Whatleys' first claim for relief under C.R.C.P. 106, and deferred ruling as to the second claim under. § 1988. The court's dismissal of the first claim for relief is not at issue here.

Because the parties had submitted matters outside the pleadings in support of and in response to the motion for partial dismissal, the court proceeded, pursuant to C.R.C.P. 12(c), to treat the motion as one for summary judgment and disposed of all the claims remaining against the county defendants as required by C.R.C.P. 56.

The Whatleys then filed a motion seeking partial summary judgment as to the § 1983 claim, and the Carlston defendants filed their own motion for summary judgment requesting judgment in their favor on all the What-leys' claims against them.

The court eventually decided all claims for relief as a matter of law, granting both the County defendants' and the Carlston defendants' motions for summary judgment and denying the Whatleys' motion for partial summary judgment.

I.

The Whatleys first contend that the trial court erred in denying their § 1983 claim and that the lack of notice to them before the 1995 and 1996 amendments were passed amounted to the deprivation of a constitutionally protected property interest without due process of law. We do not agree.

[798]*798We conduct a de novo review of a trial court's grant of summary judgment. Aspen Wilderness Workshop, Inc. v. Colo. Water Conservation Bd., 901 P.2d 1251 (Colo.1995). Summary judgment is proper if the record shows that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. C.R.C.P. 56(c). In the context of summary judgment, a material fact is a fact that affects the outcome of the case. Keybank v. Mascarenas, 17 P.3d 209 (Colo.App.2000).

The moving party has the initial burden to show that the nonmoving party's case is not supported by the evidence. Once the moving party meets its initial burden, the burden shifts to the nonmoving party to establish that there is a triable issue of fact. Civil Serv. Comm'n v.

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Related

Whatley v. SUMMIT COUNTY BD. OF CTY. COM'RS
77 P.3d 793 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2003)

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Bluebook (online)
77 P.3d 793, 2003 Colo. App. LEXIS 347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whatley-v-summit-county-board-of-county-commissioners-coloctapp-2003.