Floyd v. BOARD OF COM'RS BONNEVILLE COUNTY

• Decision Date: 06 August 2002
• Docket Number: No. 26774, 26808.,26774, 26808.
• Citation: 52 P.3d 863,137 Idaho 718
• Parties: John FLOYD, Leon Dance, Mindy Jo Collier f/b/o Mindy Jo Collier Trust, Petitioners-Respondents and Cross-Appellants, v. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF BONNEVILLE COUNTY, Idaho, governing body of a political subdivision of the State of Idaho, Respondent-Appellant and Cross Respondent, and Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Intervenor-Appellant and Cross Respondent. John Floyd, Leon Dance, Mindy Jo Collier f/b/o Mindy Jo Collier Trust, Petitioners-Respondents and Cross-Appellants, v. Board of Commissioners of Bonneville County, Idaho, governing body of a political subdivision of the State of Idaho, Respondent-Appellant and Cross-Respondent, and State of Idaho, Department of Fish and Game, Intervenor-Appellant.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

52 P.3d 863

137 Idaho 718

John FLOYD, Leon Dance, Mindy Jo Collier f/b/o Mindy Jo Collier Trust, Petitioners-Respondents and Cross-Appellants, v. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF BONNEVILLE COUNTY, Idaho, governing body of a political subdivision of the State of Idaho, Respondent-Appellant and Cross Respondent, and Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Intervenor-Appellant and Cross Respondent.

John Floyd, Leon Dance, Mindy Jo Collier f/b/o Mindy Jo Collier Trust, Petitioners-Respondents and Cross-Appellants, v. Board of Commissioners of Bonneville County, Idaho, governing body of a political subdivision of the State of Idaho, Respondent-Appellant and Cross-Respondent, and State of Idaho, Department of Fish and Game, Intervenor-Appellant.

No. 26774, 26808.

Supreme Court of Idaho, Boise, May 2002 Term.

August 6, 2002.

McGrath, Mecham, Decker & Smith, PLLC., Idaho Falls, for appellants Bonneville County Commissioners. Stephen J. McGrath argued.

Millemann, Pittenger, McMahan & Pemberton, LLP, McCall, for respondents, Floyd, et al. Steven J. Millemann argued.

Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Clive Strong, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for Intervenor Idaho Department of Fish & Game. John R. Kormanik argued.

WALTERS, Justice.

The question before the Court is the legal status of Antelope Creek Road (ACR), located in the Antelope Valley area east of Idaho Falls. In this appeal following remand, Bonneville County (County) and the intervenor, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, (IDFG) seek review of the decision of the district court, which reversed the decision of the Board of County Commissioners and declared the ACR a private road. This Court vacates the decision of the district court and affirms the Bonneville County Commissioners' determination that ACR is a public road.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

The Court's opinion in Floyd v. Board of Comm'rs of Bonneville County, 131 Idaho 234, 235-36, 953 P.2d 984, 985-86 (1998), sets forth the facts as they appeared at the time of the district court's original review of the Board's validation proceedings:

The respondents (the Landowners) own a ranch (the property) in the Antelope Valley area east of Idaho Falls. They purchased this property on September 22, 1989, from the Farm Credit Bank of Spokane. Previously, this property was owned by the Weeks Brothers, Inc. This property is crossed by the Antelope Creek Road (ACR), which has been in existence since the early 1900s.

There are two distinct segments of the ACR. The first segment is approximately 4.55 miles in length and is located directly north of the property. The status of this segment is not an issue in this appeal. The segment of the ACR in issue is the section which traverses the property previously owned by the Weeks Brothers, Inc. This road is considered to be part of the "loop." The "loop" consists of the road which runs south from the current Highway 26 and across the property, then continues west to connect with Highway 26. The ACR provides access to the Caribou National Forest, the Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area and other land owned by the State of Idaho.

On December 11, 1939, the Commissioners expressly abandoned the entirety of the disputed segment of the road. Then, in late 1949, the Weeks Brothers Inc. obtained a default judgment against Bonneville County ("County") quieting title in all the property owned by the Weeks Brothers, Inc.

In the early 1950s, the ACR was improved by County employees at the County's expense, at the decision of the Commissioners. After completion of improvements, the road was traversable by passenger vehicles. The County maintained the ACR from the early 1950s until 1972. During this period, the owners of the property also performed maintenance work on the road. Had the County graders not graded the ACR, and used the "loop," the graders would have had to backtrack out to Highway 26 to maintain the two connected roads. This would have added considerable time to the maintenance of the roads. The County stopped maintaining the ACR after 1972.

The ACR appeared on the Road Inventory Maps prepared by the Idaho Department of Transportation ("Transportation Department") in 1961 and 1971. It appeared on the map marked in green which indicated the road was "primitive." A "primitive" road was defined as "an unimproved route (on which there is no public maintenance) usable by four-wheel vehicles and publicly traveled by small numbers of vehicles." Neither the 1961 nor 1971 maps is signed by the Commissioners or the County engineer. The first year the Transportation Department conducted the "Blue Roads" map system was 1977. This was the first formal request by the Transportation Department to the County to confirm the roads on the map were County roads. On the map, all roads colored blue were deemed County roads. When the map was submitted to the County the ACR was coded blue. After meeting with the Transportation Department, the Commissioners, the County Road and Bridge Supervisor, and the County Engineer, the road was marked in yellow, which is defined as "deleted or abandoned." From 1984 until 1990, the west segment of the ACR was deleted from the maps altogether.

In the late 1960s, gates were placed at the north and west entrances of the property. These gates generally remained closed and had to be opened and re-closed by members of the public who crossed the road. During this time frame, the County had a policy against closed gates on County roads. The gates remained on this road for over twenty years, although this road was not on the "Gated Roads" sheet that listed all gated roads that the County claimed were County roads.

In the early 1970s, the roads connected by the ACR were placed in different maintenance districts. In 1974, signs were placed on the property by the owners of the property, indicating that the road was private and that the County had refused to maintain the road. One of the signs remained in place until after the property was purchased by the Landowners in 1989. The County Assessor's Map shows that the owners of the property have been assessed on the full acreage without any reduction for a County road passing through the property. The road, however, continued to be used extensively by the public until 1989. The road was used to access State land, as part of an organized snowmobile race and for local farmers, among other things.

In preparation for the property to be sold, the Commissioners were asked to formally declare the disputed segment of the road as a County road. The Commissioners denied this request. In a meeting on November 15, 1989, the Commissioners acknowledged that the disputed segment of the road was abandoned and was a private road, although the County did not conduct a formal process of abandonment.

On May 29, 1991, the Commissioners instituted a validation proceeding as to the status of the ACR. After the hearing, the Commissioners validated the ACR as a public road.

The Landowners filed a petition for rehearing or reconsideration with the Board of County Commissioners in August of 1991. The Board denied a rehearing, but agreed to reconsider its decision based upon new evidence submitted by the Landowners with the petition. Incorporating its previous findings of fact and affirming its earlier conclusion that the ACR was a public road, the Board issued an order dated October 21, 1991. From this decision, the Landowners appealed to the district court.

On June 15, 1995, the district court ruled that the trial would be held de novo because of bias on the part of the Commissioners. The district court decided not to apply the newly enacted Section 40-208 of the Idaho Code governing the standard of review of a decision by a board of county commissioners. After a bench trial in early 1996, the district court held that the ACR never became a public road because of lack of proof of intent on the part of the State and the County and, in the alternative, that the road was subsequently abandoned in 1977. The County and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game as intervenors appealed to this Court.

On March 30, 1998, this Court held that the district court erred in holding a de novo hearing, as the statute limiting a district court's review of a validation hearing was procedural in nature and thus could be applied retroactively. Id. The Court vacated the decision of the district court and remanded the case for review pursuant to I.C. § 40-208. Id. Pursuant to an order of the district court granting the parties' joint motion to be allowed to present additional evidence, the district court remanded the matter to the Board for a hearing. On July 30, 1999, the Board issued revised findings of fact, conclusions of law and a new order validating the ACR as a public road.

On October 7, 1999, the Landowners filed a petition for judicial review of the Board's decision. The IDFG, an intervenor, also petitioned for review of the decision, challenging the requirement, as found by the Board, that the owner of prescriptive public rights must prove the County's intent to create prescriptive rights in a road as an element of I.C. § 40-202(3).

On March 1, 2000, the County filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, contending that the appeal from the Board's 1991 decision was untimely because there existed no statutory authority providing for reconsideration by the Board and thus no basis to extend the time for filing an appeal from the original decision. The district court denied the motion to dismiss and held that: (1) I.C. § 31-828 was broad enough to confer on the Board authority to reconsider its decisions; (2) the Board is presumed to have acted in conformity with the law; and (3) Rule 14, I.A.R., extends the time for filing an appeal by virtue of a motion for reconsideration.

On July 4, 2000, the district court issued its memorandum opinion reversing the Board's order finding the ACR to be a public road. The district court concluded...