Johnson v. Mohave County

• Decision Date: 14 October 2003
• Docket Number: No. 1 CA-CV-03-0072.,1 CA-CV-03-0072.
• Citation: 78 P.3d 1051,206 Ariz. 330
• Parties: Buster JOHNSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MOHAVE COUNTY, a body politic, Pete Byers, Thomas Stockwell, as members of the Board of Supervisors, Mohave County, Arizona, and Lake Havasu City, a municipal corporation of the State of Arizona, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Arizona Court of Appeals

78 P.3d 1051

206 Ariz. 330

Buster JOHNSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MOHAVE COUNTY, a body politic, Pete Byers, Thomas Stockwell, as members of the Board of Supervisors, Mohave County, Arizona, and Lake Havasu City, a municipal corporation of the State of Arizona, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 1 CA-CV-03-0072.

Court of Appeals of Arizona, Division 1, Department C.

October 14, 2003.

Harvey R. Jackson, Lake Havasu City, Attorney for Plaintiff-Appellant.

William J. Ekstrom, Jr., Mohave County Attorney, by John White, Deputy County Attorney, Kingman, Cookson & Ingram by Susan Ingram, Lake Havasu City, Attorneys for Defendants-Appellees.

OPINION

HALL, Judge.

¶ 1 Buster Johnson appeals from the summary judgment in favor of Lake Havasu City, Mohave County, Pete Byers, and Thomas Stockwell (collectively, appellees) and from the trial court's award of attorneys' fees against him pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) section 12-349 (1992). We have jurisdiction pursuant to A.R.S. § 12-2101(B) (1994).

¶ 2 The issues on appeal are:

1. Is an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) made pursuant to A.R.S. §§ 11-932(A), -933(A) (2001) subject to the public auction requirement of A.R.S. § 11-256 (2001) or, alternatively, the unanimous consent exception in A.R.S. § 11-251(9)(2001)?¹

2. Did Johnson bring his claim "without substantial justification," thereby entitling appellees to an award of attorneys' fees pursuant to § 12-349?

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶ 3 The relevant facts are undisputed. Mohave County (County) entered into a lease agreement with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 1974, providing the County with a leasehold interest in the Special Activities Recreational Area (SARA Park) and requiring that the land be used for public recreational purposes. In July of 2000, the City of Lake Havasu (City) transmitted a proposal to the Mohave County Board of Supervisors (Board), delineating an IGA between the City and County regarding the development, management, and maintenance of the SARA Park area.

¶ 4 The terms of the proposed IGA provided that the City would pay for all capital improvements and operational expenses incurred in the development and maintenance of SARA Park, as well as supply remuneration to the County consisting of a five-thousand-dollar yearly base payment and ten percent of all fees collected from park users. In exchange, the County would abide by and maintain its present leasehold interest and give the City a right of first refusal to enter into a new lease with BLM upon the expiration of the County BLM lease. At the time the 2000 proposal was presented to the County, Johnson was a member of the Board and expressed his intent to vote against the proposed IGA. The Mohave County Attorney advised the Board that the IGA was, in effect, a sublease for which unanimous consent by the Board was required in the absence of a public auction. Consequently, the proposal was defeated because there was not unanimous consent.

¶ 5 Approximately two years later, the City submitted another proposal, entitled "INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT FOR THE MANAGEMENT MAINTENANCE AND IMPROVEMENT OF PUBLICLY OWNED RECREATION FACILITIES," that contained nearly identical provisions to the earlier proposal. The Board approved the IGA, with recently-elected supervisors Byers and Stockwell voting in favor of the agreement and Johnson voting against it. Objecting to the "majority-rule" procedure employed, Johnson filed a lawsuit seeking a declaration that the IGA entered into between the County and City was effectively a lease governed by A.R.S. §§ 11-251(9), -256 (2001), requiring appraisal and public auction or unanimous consent by the Board.

¶ 6 The original complaint, in which Johnson sought both a declaratory judgment that the IGA was unenforceable and special action relief preventing the County from implementing the IGA, named only the County and supervisors Byers and Stockwell as defendants. However, the trial court sua sponte joined the City as an indispensable party to the proceedings. See Ariz. R. Civ. P. 21. On cross-motions for summary judgment,² the trial court entered summary judgment on behalf of the appellees. In its final order, the trial court also awarded attorneys' fees of $4,500 and $2,105 to the County and City, respectively.

DISCUSSION

I. The County was not required to hold a public auction before entering into the cooperative agreement

¶ 7 In reviewing a summary judgment in a case involving undisputed material facts, we independently review the trial court's application of the law to the facts. Canady v. Prescott Canyon Estates Homeowners Ass'n, 204 Ariz. 91, 92, ¶ 6, 60 P.3d 231, 232 (App. 2002).

¶ 8 This case presents an issue of statutory interpretation. Johnson, characterizing the agreement between the County and the City as a lease, relies primarily on §§ 11-251(9) and -256 to support his argument that all leases or subleases of county property must, absent a unanimous vote of the board of supervisors, be put up for public auction. See Davis v. Hidden, 124 Ariz. 546, 548, 606 P.2d 36, 38 (App.1979) (holding that the board of supervisors possesses only those powers expressly conferred by statute or necessarily implied therefrom). Appellees claim that the agreement is not a lease but rather a cooperative agreement to develop, maintain, and administer a public park as authorized pursuant to §§ 11-933(A) and -952(A).³

¶ 9 On their face, the relevant statutes could be construed to support Johnson's claim. For example, § 11-256(A) generally authorizes the county to "lease or sublease... any land or building owned by or under the control of the county[,]" but § 11-256(C) additionally requires that such property "shall be leased or subleased at a public auction to the highest bidder." According to Johnson, the only exception to the public auction requirement is the provision in § 11-251(9) that allows a county to "lease any county property to any other duly constituted governmental entity" without a public auction if the board unanimously consents. Therefore, even though § 11-932, which authorizes a county or municipality to acquire "by lease or sublease" real property "from the United States or other governmental agency ... for the use and purpose of a public park," does not specifically require a public auction, Johnson argues that § 11-256(C) applies to acquisitions or leases pursuant to § 11-932, subject only to the unanimity exception found in § 11-251(9).

¶ 10 Appellees rely on Pioneer National Trust Company v. Kirk, 121 Ariz. 508, 591 P.2d 996 (App.1979) as support for their argument that the agreement is not a lease but rather a cooperative arrangement for the management of a public park pursuant to § 11-933(A). We do not agree that Pioneer National Trust Company controls the proper characterization of the agreement in this case. The issue in that case was whether Pima County was authorized to act as an agent for the United States to redeem property from a tax sale, id. at 510-11, 591 P.2d at 998-99, not whether a cooperative agreement and a lease agreement are mutually exclusive. Furthermore, as noted by the trial court in this case, the IGA contains provisions that are typically associated with a lease or, in this case, a sublease agreement. For example, the agreement requires the City to assume the County's obligations under its leasehold interest with BLM and grants the City the right to develop and manage SARA Park subject to a yearly fee.

¶ 11 Nonetheless, even assuming that the IGA is properly characterized as part sublease and part cooperative agreement, we conclude that the public auction requirement of § 11-256(C) is inapplicable to acquisitions or leases for public park purposes made pursuant to § 11-932. Our analysis is supported by several rules of statutory construction. First, courts construe seemingly conflicting statutes in harmony when possible. Steer v. Eggleston, 202 Ariz. 523, 527, ¶ 16, 47 P.3d 1161, 1165 (App.2002). Second, a statute should be construed in conjunction with other statutes that relate to the same subject or purpose, giving effect to all statutes involved. Id. Third, in furtherance of such harmonization, courts should review the history of the various sections in order to ascertain the intent of the legislature and thereby construe the statutes to further that intent. State v. Thomason, 162 Ariz. 363, 366, 783 P.2d 809, 812 (App.1989). After reviewing the history of the relevant statutory scheme, we conclude that the legislature never intended that the acquisition of land for park purposes be subject to the public auction requirement. See State v. Cornish, 192 Ariz. 533, 537, ¶ 16, 968 P.2d 606, 610 (App.1998) (holding courts should apply statutory constructions that make practical sense and do not frustrate legislative intent).

¶ 12 As part of its comprehensive statutory compilation in 1939, the Arizona Legislature enacted the precursor to § 11-256, which generally requires that leases involving county property be made at an advertised public auction to the highest bidder. See Arizona Code of 1939, § 17-207; Laws 1939, Ch. 9, §§ 1, 2. The legislature's purpose in creating the competitive bidding statute was "to prevent favoritism, fraud and public waste by encouraging free and full competition." See Mohave County v. Mohave-Kingman Estates, Inc., 120 Ariz. 417, 420, 586 P.2d 978, 981 (1978). At the same time, the legislature enacted the predecessor to § 11-932, which authorizes park agreements but does not impose the public auction requirement. See Arizona Code of 1939, § 16-1502; Laws 1939, Ch. 78, § 2. The rule that statutes in pari materia are to be construed so as to give effect to each, applies with even greater force when the statutes are enacted at the same session of the legislature. See Ariz. Prop. and Cas. Ins. Guar. Fund v. Ueki, 150 Ariz. 451, 456, 724 P.2d 70, 75 (App.1986) (stating that statutes enacted by the same legislature...