Bredthauer v. Christian, Spring, Seilbach and Associates, 91-78

• Decision Date: 24 January 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-78,91-78
• Parties: Charles E. BREDTHAUER and Cindy S. Bredthauer, Husband and Wife, Appellants (Plaintiffs), v. CHRISTIAN, SPRING, SEILBACH AND ASSOCIATES, a Montana Corporation; TSP, a Wyoming Corporation; Davis Surveying, a Wyoming Corporation; the Board of County Commissioners of Campbell County; Harry Underwood; W.B. Fitch; and B.L. Tarver, Appellees (Defendants).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 560

824 P.2d 560

Charles E. BREDTHAUER and Cindy S. Bredthauer, Husband and Wife, Appellants (Plaintiffs), v. CHRISTIAN, SPRING, SEILBACH AND ASSOCIATES, a Montana Corporation; TSP, a Wyoming Corporation; Davis Surveying, a Wyoming Corporation; the Board of County Commissioners of Campbell County; Harry Underwood; W.B. Fitch; and B.L. Tarver, Appellees (Defendants).

No. 91-78.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

Jan. 24, 1992.

John R. Hursh and Maureen T. Donohoue of Hursh & Donohoue, P.C., Riverton, and Larry R. Clapp of Clapp & Associates, Casper, for appellants.

Lawrence G. Orr and Curtis B. Buchhammer of Guy, Williams, White & Argeris, Cheyenne, for appellee Christian, Spring, Seilbach and Associates.

Robert G. Berger of Lonabaugh and Riggs, Sheridan, for appellee TSP.

Gary R. Scott and Steven K. Sharpe of Hirst & Applegate, Cheyenne, for appellee Davis Surveying.

Russell A. Hansen, Campbell County Atty., Gillette, for appellee Bd. of County Com'rs of Campbell County.

Before URBIGKIT, C.J., and THOMAS, CARDINE, MACY and GOLDEN, JJ.

MACY, Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment dismissing a negligence action brought by Appellants Charles E. Bredthauer and Cindy S. Bredthauer against Appellees Christian, Spring, Seilbach and Associates, a Montana corporation; TSP, a Wyoming corporation; and Davis Surveying, a Wyoming corporation, for conducting erroneous land surveys and against Appellee Board of County Commissioners of Campbell County for filing the land surveys even though it knew they were incorrect. The district court found the Bredthauers' cause of action accrued more than two years prior to the time they filed their complaint.

We reverse and remand.

The Bredthauers present their issue in the form of a declaratory statement:

The Trial Court erred by finding that the causes of action against the surveyors and the County accrued to the Plaintiff-Appellants on June 9, 1988, and as such barred their claims filed on July 2, 1990, by operation of W.S. 1-39-113 and W.S. 1-3-107(a)(i).

The Bredthauers purchased a parcel of land in 1977, which became known as the Bredthauer Subdivision in May 1981 when the Board of County Commissioners approved the subdivision plat. The Bredthauers also purchased a second parcel of land, a tract in the Pineview Ranchettes Subdivision, in 1981 and a third parcel in 1982, which became known as the Bredthauer-West Subdivision when the Board of County Commissioners approved the plat in May 1982. Christian, Spring, Seilbach and Associates surveyed the first and third parcels in 1976. TSP surveyed the Pineview Ranchettes Subdivision in 1977, and the Board of County Commissioners approved that survey in 1979.

Problems arose over the years concerning the accuracy of the land surveys, but these problems were resolved in a manner which permitted the Bredthauers to continue developing and selling the lots in their subdivisions. One of these problems involved a land survey performed by Davis Surveying indicating the location of a water well (the State Engineer rejected a 1984 application for water rights because the survey was incorrect).

At a June 9, 1988, closing on the sale of property in one of the Bredthauers' subdivisions, an agent for the title insurance company advised the Bredthauers that he was concerned about the survey discrepancies and that he would not issue any more title insurance policies for lots within the subdivision until his concerns were resolved. Upon the advice of their attorney, the Bredthauers retained a professional land surveyor to determine whether a survey problem existed, what the problem was, and who was responsible for it. The Bredthauers received the following report from their land surveyor on July 28, 1988:

Campbell County Abstract's recent decision refusing to issue title insurance is an effort to resolve a land possession-surveying problem which has existed for quite some time. The original survey of T52N,R73W was executed by the General Land Office in 1883. In 1968, a survey was conducted by Frank Luers, a local surveyor, along the east Township boundary. His "Plat of Unsurveyed Lands[,"] as filed in the Office of the Campbell County Clerk, shows that a problem existed along the Township exterior. In 1976, another surveyor, Lawrence Potter, filed "Certified Land Corner Recordations" for the section corners along the same Township boundary indicating that this same problem existed. In 1976, a survey was executed and a map prepared by Christian, Spring, Seilbach and Associates (CSSA). This map titled "Ten Tracts Map" was prepared for Duke Marquiss but is not on file at the Office of the Campbell County Clerk. In 1977, CSSA prepared a "Record of Survey" map, which detailed the overlaps between the "Ten Tracts Map" and the actual section boundaries. This map is not on file in the Office of the Campbell County Clerk. The subdivision map for Pineview Ranchettes Subdivision, as prepared by TSP was filed in 1979. The BLM Dependent Resurvey of T52N,R73W was approved and filed in 1980. Bredthauer Subdivision and Bredthauer-West Subdivision plats prepared by Davis Surveying were filed in 1981 and 1982, respectively.

[Each of these surveys and maps is then described and analyzed by the report.]

In conclusion, the problems that now face the Bredthauers should never have occurred. A registered land surveyor is charged with locating legal property boundaries and this was not satisfactorily done. CSSA p[er]formed a wrong survey and did not correct it with a filed plat once found. TSP and Davis perpetuated this erroneous survey even though evidence was available that a problem existed. In addition, ownership and encumb[ ]rance reports for Bredthauer and Bredthauer-West Subdivisions should have indicated a problem. In order to now correct this problem, an accurate survey should be conducted and a plat prepared detailing the affected properties. Once completed, new descriptions could be written describing the actual possession lines.

The Bredthauers lost a sale of property in August 1988 because they could not get title insurance for the property, and they filed their complaint on July 20, 1990. The district court determined that their claims were barred by operation of Wyo. Stat. §§ 1-3-107 (1988) ¹ and 1-39-113 (Supp.1991) ² because their complaint was filed more than two years after the "discovery" date. The district court selected June 9, 1988, as the "discovery" date as that was the date on which the title insurance agent advised the Bredthauers that he would not continue to issue title insurance policies because of the survey discrepancies. The Bredthauers contend the "discovery" date was not earlier than July 28, 1988, the date on which they received their land surveyor's report.

The issue to be decided here was initially joined by means of motions to dismiss under W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6). The district court considered matters outside the pleadings and, hence, orders of dismissal were entered pursuant to W.R.C.P. 56. The district court's orders disposed of only some of the issues and parties to the action, but the district court made the requisite certifications pursuant to W.R.C.P. 54(b). We have ascertained from the record that the district court, at least implicitly, furnished reasons for these certifications which demonstrate certification would materially aid judicial efficiency. See Alexander v. United States, 803 P.2d 61 (Wyo.1990), and Tader v. Tader, 737 P.2d 1065 (Wyo.1987). We must conduct our analysis in accordance with the review standards applicable to summary judgments. Baros v. Wells, 780 P.2d 341, 342 (Wyo.1989).

Wyoming is a "discovery" state, which means the running of the statute of limitations is not triggered until such time as the plaintiff knows or has reason to know of the existence of the cause of action. Mills v. Garlow, 768 P.2d 554, 555 (Wyo.1989). The question of when the statute of limitations begins to run is one of law when the facts, as in this case, are not in dispute. Id.; Poffenberger v. Risser, 290 Md. 631, 431 A.2d 677 (Ct.App.1981). See also Young v. Young, 709 P.2d 1254 (Wyo.1985), and Duke v. Housen, 589 P.2d 334 (Wyo.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 863, 100 S.Ct. 132, 62 L.Ed.2d 86 (1979). We hold that, as a matter of law, the Bredthauers' cause of action did not accrue before July 28, 1988, the date on which they received their land surveyor's report advising them that the surveys conducted by the appellee surveyors were, in its opinion, in error.

In...