Miller v. Campbell County, 92-117
| Decision Date | 09 June 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 92-117,92-117 |
| Citation | 854 P.2d 71 |
| Parties | H. Douglas MILLER, et al., Appellants (Plaintiffs), v. CAMPBELL COUNTY, Wyoming; Board of County Commissioners of the County of Campbell; Bill Barkley, Thomas Ostlund, and Mickey Wagensen; Campbell County Sheriff's Department, Campbell County Health Department; Campbell County Engineer's Office; Campbell County Fire Board; and Campbell County Emergency Services Agency, Appellees (Defendants). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Gary L. Shockey and Heather Noble of Spence, Moriarity & Schuster, Jackson, for appellants.
Blair J. Trautwein and Rick A. Thompson of Hathaway, Speight, Kunz and Trautwein, Cheyenne, for appellees.
Before MACY, C.J., and THOMAS, CARDINE, URBIGKIT * and GOLDEN, JJ.
Douglas Miller and other residents (appellants) of Rawhide Village subdivision in Campbell County appeal a partial summary judgment granted Campbell County and its officials (appellees) denying appellants' claim of emotional damages arising from an inverse condemnation action.
We affirm.
1. [Whether] plaintiffs are entitled to emotional distress damages in an inverse condemnation case.
2. [Whether] the policies warranting awarding emotional damages in a tort action for private intrusion on property interests also warrant awarding emotional damages in an inverse condemnation action based on governmental intrusion on private property interests.
3. [Whether] the Appellants have been deprived of just compensation for the condemnation of their home, as guaranteed by Art. I § 33 of the Wyoming Constitution, if Appellants are denied recovery for emotional distress damages.
Appellees frame the issues as follows:
1. [Whether] emotional distress [is] a proper element of damages in an inverse condemnation case.
2. [Whether] public policy favors changing the law to allow emotional damages in an inverse condemnation case.
3. [Whether] the circumstances of this case justify the expansion of the definition of "just compensation" to include emotional distress damages.
Appellants were residents of the Rawhide Village subdivision located in Located north of the Little Rawhide Creek, the Rawhide Village subdivision was developed in 1975 and originally approved and authorized by actions of the Campbell County Commissioners. Some area ranchers had, at times, observed gas bubbling from the creek, and during the development of the subdivision appellants claim that core samplings taken from the ground showed the presence of methane gas near the surface of the subdivision. At approximately the same time that the Rawhide Village subdivision was being developed, Amax Coal Company was developing the Eagle Butte coal mine just to the east of and adjacent to the subdivision. The County was aware of the development of the adjacent coal mine when the subdivision was approved.
Campbell County near Gillette, Wyoming. The subdivision is located adjacent to a large open-pit coal mine, owned and operated by Amax Coal Company.
In February, 1987, dangerous gases began seeping from the ground and cracks in the street in the southern end of the subdivision. Campbell County Commissioners (commissioners) consulted with state and federal agencies concerning health and safety problems posed by the gas seepage. The County hired private consultants to conduct drilling and testing of the gas concentration levels, confirming the seepage of methane and hydrogen sulfide gases from coal seams beneath the subdivision.
Concerned about the health and safety of the residents, the commissioners recommended that some homes in the subdivision be evacuated on February 24, 1987. The following day, the county declared an emergency and evacuated more homes. The county continued to monitor and test the seepage to assess the potential hazards to the remaining residents and evacuated still more homes on March 6. On March 26, some homeowners were allowed to return to their homes, upon the condition they install gas detectors. The county agreed to provide financial assistance to some of those who chose not to return and provided gas detectors for others.
By the end of May, several residents complained of medical problems and illnesses, including two confirmed cases of hydrogen sulfide poisoning. On June 8, 1987, county health officials petitioned Governor Sullivan to declare the subdivision a disaster area because of specific health problems within Rawhide Village. On May 29, in an emergency meeting, the county declared the entire subdivision uninhabitable.
On June 2, the county passed a resolution requiring that the entire subdivision be evacuated by July 31, providing temporary assistance to residents in the form of alternate shelter until June 30. The commissioners ordered the evacuation, believing that federal assistance money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would become available.
On June 9, Governor Sullivan issued a proclamation declaring the subdivision a disaster area. The State Emergency Operations plan was activated to provide state assistance to Rawhide Village residents, and on June 12, Governor Sullivan applied for FEMA assistance.
When the initial request for federal aid was made, FEMA conducted an extensive investigation of Rawhide Village. At the request of the state health officer, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) also conducted an investigation. Relying on the investigation by CDC, FEMA found that The Assistant Surgeon General concluded that the available data indicated that a limited fire and explosion potential exists in only a small cluster of homes within the subdivision. On June 25, FEMA denied Campbell County's request for federal relief.
On July 3, the county suspended the July 31 evacuation deadline, but ordered the immediate, temporary evacuation of the subdivision so that more drilling and testing could be conducted to obtain sufficient data to support an appeal of the FEMA decision. The county left intact the resolution declaring On September 4, President Reagan declared the subdivision a disaster area, overruling the FEMA denial for relief. Rawhide Village residents received federal relief aid and were also granted $2,000,000 from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund.
the entire subdivision uninhabitable, and enforced this resolution by arresting Douglas Miller on July 7 for bypassing a roadblock to retrieve his children's clothing and tools of his trade. On July 28, the county rescinded the evacuation order, three days before the July 31 deadline. At this time only eight residents remained. Other residents had abandoned their homes based on the June 2 evacuation order and, as a result, gave either a deed in lieu of foreclosure to mortgage holders or had their mortgages foreclosed. CDC continued testing and monitoring the gas levels within some homes in the subdivision but found no additional health hazards.
Four lawsuits ensued from these incidents. In the first suit Rawhide Village residents, comprising eighty-eight families, sued Amax Coal Company in September, 1987. Plaintiffs sued on negligence theories claiming that Amax's dewatering of underground structures at the Eagle Butte Mine had caused the gas seepage. On April 26, 1989, the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount. On July 7, 1988, Douglas Miller brought suit against Campbell County and its commissioners, alleging that the evacuation order deprived him of his constitutional rights, including deprivation of property and liberty rights without due process. The claim regarding the liberty interest arose from his arrest on July 7, 1987. On October 2, 1989, the court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment, finding that the defendants did not deprive Miller of any constitutional rights.
On May 26, 1989, approximately eighty families, who are now appellants in the case at bar, filed suit in federal district court against Campbell County and its officials. See Miller v. Campbell County, Wyo., 722 F.Supp. 687 (D.Wyo.1989). Appellants claimed a violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the county and its commissioners had deprived them of their constitutional rights, including deprivation of property and liberty interests without due process of law as well as a deprivation of their Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process rights. Appellants alleged, more specifically, that the county took their property without just compensation. On November 7, 1989, Federal Judge Alan B. Johnson granted summary judgment on all counts in favor of defendants. With regard to the unjust compensation claim, the federal district court held that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the claim was not "ripe." Judge Johnson stated, "A taking claim under the fifth amendment is not ripe until the plaintiff has received a final determination from the agency responsible for an alleged regulatory taking and has sought compensation through state procedures." The appellants would have to file an inverse condemnation action and then be denied just compensation before the federal district court would have subject matter jurisdiction.
On September 24, 1991, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the federal district court, holding that appellants had an adequate remedy under state law with the inverse condemnation action. Miller v. Campbell County, 945 F.2d 348 (10th Cir.1991).
Pursuant to the federal order, appellants filed an inverse condemnation claim in state district court on November 6, 1989. Appellants asserted claims for inverse condemnation, denial of substantive due process, and unlawful authorization of the subdivision, requesting the following damages:
a) Loss of value and use of property, including loss of all payments on property, loss...
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