Winchell v. Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation

1999 MT 11, 972 P.2d 1132, 293 Mont. 89
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 21, 1999
Docket98-417
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1999 MT 11 (Winchell v. Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Winchell v. Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation, 1999 MT 11, 972 P.2d 1132, 293 Mont. 89 (Mo. 1999).

Opinions

JUSTICE REGNIER

delivered the opinion of the Court.

¶1 Appellants, Tom and David Winchell, sought judicial review of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s valuation of improvements upon their lease on state land. The Winchells allege that the Department exceeded its statutory authority under § 77-6-306(3), MCA, when it substituted its values for the values established by a panel of arbitrators. Both the Winchells and the Department moved for summary judgement in the Seventh Judicial District Court, Dawson County. On May 8, 1998, the District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the Department and the Winchells appeal. We affirm.

¶2 The issue before us is whether the District Court erred when it concluded that the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation did not exceed its statutory authority under § 77-6-306(3), MCA, by establishing its own values of improvements on state land.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

¶3 At issue in this case is State Lease No. 0343, a 477.9 acre tract of state trust land located in Dawson County. The lease has been the subject of long-standing litigation which has culminated in a series of cases before the Montana Supreme Court.

¶4 Litigation commenced when the Department of State Lands (now known as the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation) canceled the Winchells’ lease because the Winchells failed to pay agricultural rents on thirty-two acres where they made agricultural improvements. Through the District Court, the Winchells obtained a [91]*91writ of prohibition to avoid paying the agricultural rents. We upheld the writ in Winchell v. Department of State Lands (1988), 235 Mont. 10, 764 P.2d 1267 (Winchell I), on the basis that the thirty-two acres were not suited for agricultural use, despite the Winchells’ improvements. Thus, lower grazing rents were due instead.

¶5 The Winchells, thereafter, used the land for grazing. Then, in Winchell v. Department of State Lands (1990), 241 Mont. 94, 785 P.2d 212 (Winchell II), we affirmed the Department’s second attempt to cancel the Winchells’ lease. This time the Department successfully argued that the Winchells mismanaged the lease by permitting the land to be overgrazed.

¶6 In Winchell v. Department of State Lands (1993), 262 Mont. 328, 865 P.2d 249 (Winchell III), we considered the Winchells’ efforts to regain the lease by submitting the highest bid in a competitive bid process for a new lease. We concluded that the Department could reject the Winchells’ bid if it provided written findings as to why acceptance of the bid was not in the State’s best interest.

¶7 When the Department solicited bids a second time for a new lease, the Winchells again submitted the highest bid. This time, the Department awarded the lease to the second highest bidder, Jim Hagemeister. In order for Hagemeister to obtain the lease, however, he had to pay the Winchells the value of the useable improvements they placed on the land, pursuant to § 77-6-305, MCA. Since the Winchells and Hagemeister were not able to agree on a value of the improvements, a three-person panel of arbitrators was requested to ascertain a value, pursuant to § 77-6-306(1), MCA. Two of the three arbitrators agreed that the improvements should be valued in excess of $20,000; however, they did not explain their rationale. The third arbitrator submitted a much lower value of $1,407.35.

¶8 Hagemeister appealed the arbitrators’ higher value to the Department. Pursuant to § 77-6-306(3), MCA, the Department “examine[d] the records pertaining to the costs of the improvements” in ascertaining a new value. In addition, the Department sent its own staff appraiser to conduct an on-site inspection of the improvements. The Department set aside the arbitrators’ higher value and established a much lower value of $1,564.

¶9 The Winchells appealed the Department’s valuation process in the Seventh Judicial District Court, Dawson County, pursuant to § 77-6-306(4), MCA. Both parties moved for summary judgment, and [92]*92on May 8,1998, the District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the Department. From this, the Winchells appeal.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 10 On appeal from a summary judgment, this Court reviews a case de novo based on the same criteria applied by the district court. See Stutzman v. Safeco Ins. Co. (1997), 284 Mont. 372, 376, 945 P.2d 32, 34 (citing Treichel v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. (1997), 280 Mont. 443, 446, 930 P.2d 661, 663). Thus,

[t]he movant must demonstrate that no genuine issues of material fact exist. Once this has been accomplished, the burden then shifts to the non-moving party to prove by more than mere denial and speculation that a genuine issue does exist. Having determined that genuine issues of material fact do not exist, the court must then determine whether the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. [This Court] reviews the legal determination made by a district court as to whether the court erred.

Stutzman, 284 Mont. at 376, 945 P.2d at 34 (quoting Bruner v. Yellowstone County (1995), 272 Mont. 261, 264-65, 900 P.2d 901, 903).

¶11 Upon a de novo review of a proceeding in a case that is not “contested,” our standard of review is limited to whether the agency erred in law or whether its decision is wholly unsupported by the evidence or clearly arbitrary or capricious. See Johansen v. Department of Natural Resources & Conservation, 1998 MT 51, ¶26, 288 Mont. 39, ¶26, 955 P.2d 653, ¶26 (citing North Fork Preservation Assoc. v. Department of State Lands (1989), 238 Mont. 451, 457, 778 P.2d 862, 866). In such a proceeding, we only inquire insofar as to ascertain if the agency has stayed within its statutory bounds and has not acted arbitrarily, capriciously, or unlawfully. See Johansen, ¶26 (citing North Fork Preservation, 238 Mont. at 457, 778 P.2d at 866). We afford great deference to agency decisions, especially where it implicates substantial agency expertise. See Johansen, ¶29.

¶ 12 This standard of review is different than the standard we apply in a contested case under the Montana Administrative Procedures Act, §§ 2-4-701 to -711, MCA. Although the District Court applied the standard of review for a contested case, we will affirm its decision regardless of its reasoning where it reached the correct result. See Farmers Union Cent. Exchange, Inc. v. Department of Revenue (1995), 272 Mont. 471, 475, 901 P.2d 561, 563 (citing Lindey’s, Inc. v. Goodover (1994), 264 Mont. 449, 453,

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Bluebook (online)
1999 MT 11, 972 P.2d 1132, 293 Mont. 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/winchell-v-montana-department-of-natural-resources-conservation-mont-1999.