Lane Co., By and Through Lane v. Busch Development, Inc., 5807

• Decision Date: 22 April 1983
• Docket Number: No. 5807,5807
• Citation: 662 P.2d 419
• Parties: The LANE COMPANY, a Washington Limited Partnership, By and Through Joseph C. LANE, Jr., its general partner, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. BUSCH DEVELOPMENT, INC., a Utah Corporation, Appellee (Defendant).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 419

662 P.2d 419

The LANE COMPANY, a Washington Limited Partnership, By and Through Joseph C. LANE, Jr., its general partner, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. BUSCH DEVELOPMENT, INC., a Utah Corporation, Appellee (Defendant).

No. 5807.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

April 22, 1983.

Rehearing Denied May 18, 1983.

F. Scott Boundy and G. Scott Greenburg of Shidler, McBroom, Gates & Baldwin, Seattle, Wash., and Ward A. White, of Guy, Williams, White & Argeris, Cheyenne, for appellant.

Reed L. Martineau and Mark A. Larsen of Snow, Christensen & Martineau, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Gary R. Scott of Hirst & Applegate, Cheyenne, for appellee.

Before ROONEY, C.J., and RAPER, THOMAS, ROSE and BROWN, JJ.

BROWN, Justice.

Appellant The Lane Company (Lane) filed suit against appellee Busch Development, Inc. (Busch) on a contract. Lane alleged that, because of an agreement between Lane and Busch, Busch owed amounts which Lane had paid for grading and utility work when it was constructing a LaBelle's store in a Cheyenne shopping center. Busch counterclaimed, alleging that the LaBelle's store encroached on Busch's property. The court granted a summary judgment for Lane on Busch's counterclaim. It also granted a summary judgment for Busch against Lane on Lane's complaint, which it appeals.

We will affirm.

The single issue is whether the granting of a summary judgment to Busch because of a previous suit between the parties was proper. The previous suit, Busch Development, Inc. v. City of Cheyenne, Wyo., 645 P.2d 65 (1982), involved a dispute over landscaping at the same shopping center which is involved in this suit. Busch's motion for summary judgment against Lane in this case alleged that Lane's action was barred because of the prior suit between the parties. Busch argues that the rule against splitting a cause of action applies in this suit. Lane argues that it did not improperly split its cause of action. ¹

"A cause of action is the fact or combination of facts which gives rise to a suit." Duke v. Housen, Wyo., 589 P.2d 334, 341 (1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 863, 100 S.Ct. 132, 62 L.Ed.2d 86 (1979). The general rule against splitting a cause of action is that a single wrong gives rise to one cause of action for which only one suit may be maintained, however numerous the elements of damages resulting therefrom. Bienville Water Supply Company v. Mobile, 186 U.S. 212, 22 S.Ct. 820, 46 L.Ed. 1132 (1902); and Brickel v. Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Co., 200 F.Supp. 240 (D.C.Wyo.1961). A multiplicity of suits should not be allowed where justice can be done in one suit. Holly Sugar Corporation v. Fritzler, 42 Wyo. 446, 296 P. 206 (1931). The reason for the rule is that a party should not have to be subject to multiple suits over one transaction or occurrence, or over several related transactions or occurrences. The rule also provides for judicial economy. Gareeb v. Weinstein, 161 N.J.Super. 1, 390 A.2d 706 (1978).

No precise rule has been laid down for determining what makes a whole cause of action. Each case is decided on its particular facts.

" * * * A cause of action is a legal concept which has no separate existence in the natural order of things. It is what * * * the Legislature and the courts, say it is. It exists to satisfy the needs of plaintiffs for a means of redress, of defendants for a conceptual context within which to defend an accusation, and of the courts for a framework within which to administer justice.

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"In more recent times, causes of action have been delineated by reference to the transaction, occurrence or wrongful act from which the litigation arises. * * * " Retherford v. Halliburton Company, Okl., 572 P.2d 966, 968 (1978).

This court examines a motion for summary judgment in the same light as the district court, using the same material and information as did the district court. Fegler v. Brodie, Wyo., 574 P.2d 751 (1978). The burden is on the moving party to demonstrate clearly that there is no genuine issue of material fact. Dubus v. Dresser Industries, Wyo., 649 P.2d 198 (1982). Busch, then, had the burden of showing that there was no issue of material fact concerning whether Lane had improperly split a cause of action. In the previous suit, Busch had first agreed with the City of Cheyenne (City) to provide landscaping in a perimeter or berm area of the shopping center. Busch then entered into a sales agreement with Pacific Cascade Corporation, which assigned its interests to Lane. The City then required Lane to post a bond to cover landscaping costs for the berm or perimeter area before it would issue a certificate of occupancy for LaBelle's. Lane paid under protest and then sued Busch and the City. In that suit, this court affirmed the trial court's finding that Busch was responsible for certain landscaping at the shopping center.

Busch argues that the first suit adjudicated a controversy over a single agreement between Busch and Lane, and that the second suit attempted to adjudicate a controversy under the same agreement. Lane claims that it instituted the first suit primarily for the benefit of the City to determine the City's right to receive payment for landscaping work. It says that the lower court's decision and this court's affirmance in the first case were based on an agreement that Busch had with the City and not on any contract between Lane and Busch.

Busch met its burden of showing that there was no material question of fact that Lane had split its cause of action. The complaint from the first action together with Lane's pretrial conference memorandum, the evidence which Lane introduced, the trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law, and this court's opinion in the first case, show that Lane was seeking relief from its agreement under protest with the City by proving that Lane had performed all of its landscaping obligations under the writings between Lane and Busch, and that any further landscaping, specifically for the berm area, was Busch's responsibility as a developer.

The agreement between Busch and Lane consisted of a letter agreement, a real estate purchase and sale agreement with attached site plans, and a reciprocal easement agreement. Paragraph 7 of Lane's complaint in the first action specifically mentioned landscaping agreements under the reciprocal easement agreement, so that the complaint indicated that Lane was relying on the agreements between the parties to prove that Lane had not agreed with Busch to landscape the berm area.

"7. Under the August 22, 1978 REA, Lane undertook to maintain such landscaping as would be installed by Busch. At no time has either PCC or Lane agreed to install all of said landscaping required by the Commission on said real property as aforesaid."

In its pretrial conference memorandum for the first action, Lane also indicated that it was going to rely on testimony concerning the site plans which were attached to the real estate purchase and sale agreement.

"Cliff Barber * * * will testify regarding the transactions betweens [sic] the Pacific Cascade Corporation, The Lane Company and Busch Development, as well as Busch's obligations under the original and revised site plans." (Emphasis added.)

At trial of the first case, Lane introduced the letter agreement, the real estate purchase and sale agreement and the reciprocal easement agreement to support its claim of rights and Busch's obligations. Finding of Fact No. 13 also shows that the trial court considered the writings between the parties to reach its ruling on Lane's landscaping obligations.

" * * * Exhibits B and C to the agreement [real property purchase and sale agreement] contain the site plan and the alternative site plan for the project. Both exhibits B and C provide:

" 'Landscaping and planting for the "LaBelle's" project to be furnished and installed by Pacific Cascade Corporation.' "

Conclusion of Law No. 5 in the first case specifically ruled that Lane had fulfilled its landscaping obligations to Busch: "Lane has properly fulfilled its landscaping obligation to the City of Cheyenne, the Planning Commission, and Busch * * *."

As Busch points out, in the first suit Lane relied on paragraph 5 of the site plan to show that it was not obligated to Busch to perform any landscaping in the berm area. Lane in its second suit tried to enforce its interpretation of paragraphs 3 and 4 concerning grading and utility work of the same site plan to the same real property purchase and sale agreement.

Busch also correctly points out that this court reviewed the trial court's interpretation of the writings between the parties concerning their landscaping obligations. We said in Busch Development, Inc. v. City of Cheyenne, supra, at 70, 71:

"As to a written agreement between Busch and Pacific [Lane's predecessor in interest], Busch argues that Pacific assumed the landscaping obligation for the berm area, and that the writings by the two parties conclusively demonstrate such an obligation. * * *

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" * * * The documents taken together do not support the argument that Pacific agreed to landscape both the parking site and the berm area. We agree with the trial judge that the contract was ambiguous, and we hold that a rational basis existed for the trial court's factual finding of the parties' intent concerning landscaping."

Lane's argument that it instituted the first action primarily for the benefit of the City cannot be taken seriously. A contract between two parties has to show that the parties intended to benefit a third party. Wyoming Machinery Company v. United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, Wyo., 614 P.2d 716 (1980). Busch's agreement with the City to landscape the berm area predated by four months Lane's attempt to obtain a certificate of occupancy. Busch Development, Inc. v. City of Cheyenne, supra, at 70. Busch's agreement with the City was not made so that Lane could obtain a certificate of occupancy.

Lane says that Busch...