Nyman v. Anchor Development, LLC

• Decision Date: 13 June 2003
• Docket Number: No. 20020077.,20020077.
• Citation: 2003 UT 27,73 P.3d 357
• Parties: Michael F. NYMAN, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. ANCHOR DEVELOPMENT, L.L.C., Donald R. Simon and Kathleen J. Simon, Richard N. Miller, and all other persons unknown, Defendants and Appellants.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

73 P.3d 357

2003 UT 27

Michael F. NYMAN, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. ANCHOR DEVELOPMENT, L.L.C., Donald R. Simon and Kathleen J. Simon, Richard N. Miller, and all other persons unknown, Defendants and Appellants.

No. 20020077.

Supreme Court of Utah.

June 13, 2003.

Robert W. Adkins, Coalville, for plaintiff.

John R. Lehmer, Park City, Kimberly D. Washburn, Draper, Robert M. Felton, Salt Lake, for defendants.

DURHAM, Chief Justice:

¶ 1 The sliver of property at issue here is that part of Lot 17, Block 76, Millsite Reservation to Park City, Utah, that is occupied by a garage. Plaintiff, Michael Fred Nyman (Nyman), claims rights to this property through the doctrines of adverse possession and prescriptive easement. Nyman appeals from the trial court's grant of summary judgment to defendant, Richard N. Miller (Miller), the holder of record title to the property, and the trial court's order quieting title to the property in Miller.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 The two parties, Nyman and Miller, are record title holders of adjoining Park City properties. The property in this area is divided into twenty-five by seventy-five foot lots. Miller is the record title holder of Lot 17 of Block 76 while Nyman holds title to Lots 18 and 19. Miller's chain of title is as follows: Patent from the United States to Nims, April 1877; to Mason and Davis by quitclaim deed, April 4, 1877; to Thomas W. Ferry by quitclaim deed, November 22, 1879; to Edward P. Ferry by deed, July 9, 1880; to David McLaughlin by deed, December 22, 1882; to Summit County by tax sale, 1911; to W.I. Snyder, Trustee of Park City Townsite Company, by quitclaim deed, June 20, 1916; to Summit County by tax sale, December 21, 1935; to United Park City Mines Company by quitclaim deed, December 7, 1959; to Greater Park City Company by special warranty deed, June 11, 1971; to Ramshire, Inc., by special warranty deed, June 12, 1975; to Harry F. Reed et ux and Richard N. Miller et ux by special warranty deed, December 5, 1975; to Patricia K. Miller by quitclaim deed, September 2, 1977; to Richard N. Miller by quitclaim deed, May 29, 1998.

¶ 3 Nyman's predecessor in interest acquired his property by quitclaim tax deed from Summit County, April 9, 1937. The deed referred to the property conveyed as a "Lot on Block 76, Park City, Utah," which Summit County had acquired from John Backman in a tax sale in 1930. The Backmans had acquired this property through two deeds. First, in 1906, they acquired property described as a dwelling house "together with all out buildings and improvements belonging to said dwelling and sufficient space around the same for the convenient use and occupation thereof." Second, on May 15, 1916, they acquired property including Lots 18 and 19 "according to possession" by special warranty deed from W.I. Snyder.

¶ 4 Tax records indicate that no taxes were assessed against Lot 17 between 1942 and 1959, when Summit County held the title. From 1960 to the present, Miller and his predecessors in interest paid taxes assessed against Lot 17. Nyman and his predecessors in interest have paid taxes on their property, including improvements, since 1937.

¶ 5 Since at least 1948, Nyman and his predecessors have paid taxes on a garage, including the part of the garage that occupies the portion of Lot 17 at issue here.

¶ 6 Nyman initiated this action in Summit County district court, asserting his right to quiet title to the disputed property, or in the alternative, to a prescriptive easement.¹ The trial court granted Miller's motion for summary judgment on Nyman's claim and for an order quieting title in Miller.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 7 "A trial court may properly grant summary judgment when `there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.'" WebBank v. Am. Gen. Annuity Serv. Corp., 2002 UT 88, ¶ 10, 54 P.3d 1139 (quoting Utah R. Civ. P. 56(c)). When determining the propriety of a trial court's grant of summary judgment, "we review the trial court's legal conclusions for correctness, affording those legal conclusions no deference." Ault v. Holden, 2002 UT 33, ¶ 15, 44 P.3d 781. Additionally, "`we view the facts and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.'" Id. (quoting DCM Inv. Corp. v. Pinecrest Inv. Co., 2001 UT 91, ¶ 6, 34 P.3d 785).

ANALYSIS

¶ 8 Nyman asserts that the trial court erred by rejecting his claim to have acquired title to the disputed portion of Lot 17 through adverse possession, or, in the alternative, to a right to maintain his garage on the property through a prescriptive easement. We address each of these assertions in turn.

I. ADVERSE POSSESSION

¶ 9 It is undisputed that Miller holds record title to all of Lot 17. Under Utah law, Miller is therefore "presumed to have been" in possession of Lot 17, and Nyman's "occupation of the property ... shall be deemed to have been under and in subordination to the legal title, unless it appears that" Nyman held and possessed the property "adversely to such legal title for seven years." Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-7 (2002). Nyman asserts that he has overcome this presumption for that part of Lot 17 underlying his garage through adverse possession of the land during the twenty-four year period, between 1935 and 1959, when Summit County owned Lot 17.

¶ 10 Because Nyman claims adverse possession of county-held land, we must first determine whether his claim is allowed under section 78-12-13 of the Utah Code, which states:

No person shall be allowed to acquire any right or title in or to any lands held by any town, city or county, or the corporate authorities thereof, designated for public use as streets, lanes, avenues, alleys, parks or public squares, or for any other public purpose, by adverse possession thereof for any length of time whatsoever, unless it shall affirmatively appear that such town or city or county or the corporate authorities thereof have sold, or otherwise disposed of, and conveyed such real estate to a purchaser for a valuable consideration, and that for more than seven years subsequent to such conveyance the purchaser, his grantees or successors in interest, have been in the exclusive, continuous and adverse possession of such real estate; in which case an adverse title may be acquired.

Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-13 (2002). Such restrictions on adverse possession claims against states or their political subdivisions stem from the "ancient doctrine" of nullum tempus occurrit regi, or "time does not run against the king." Devins v. Borough of Bogota, 124 N.J. 570, 592 A.2d 199, 201-02 (1991) (explaining the doctrine's rationale that "the king was too busy protecting the interests of his people to keep track of his lands and to bring suits to protect them in a timely fashion").

¶ 11 Utah's statute, like those in a number of other states, limits the restriction to situations in which the political subdivision has designated the land at issue for some public purpose. Nyman argues that Summit County was not holding the disputed portion of Lot 17 for any public purpose because the land was used for a privately-owned garage. Miller argues in opposition, however, that Summit County's 1935 acquisition of Lot 17 in a tax sale resulting from the former title holder's nonpayment of taxes did serve the public purpose of collecting taxes.

¶ 12 This case therefore raises a novel issue before this court—whether a county's acquisition of property for nonpayment of taxes should be considered a public purpose within the meaning of section 78-12-13. Although some states have held that such tax takings do not remove land from claims of adverse possession,² we follow the majority of states that hold that "[a]dverse possession does not lie against land held by the county in connection with a tax sale." Fred E. Young, Inc. v. Brush Mountain Sportsmen's Ass'n, 697 A.2d 984, 992 (Pa.Super.Ct.1997); accord Bigler v. Graham County, 128 Ariz. 474, 626 P.2d 1106, 1108 (Ct.App.1981)

; Town of Sandwich v. Quirk, 409 Mass. 380, 566 N.E.2d 614, 617 (1991); Winstead v. Winstead, 204 Miss. 787, 38 So.2d 118, 119 (1948); Kellison v. McIsaac, 131 N.H. 675, 559 A.2d 834, 837 (1989); City of Edmonds v. Williams, 54 Wash.App. 632, 774 P.2d 1241, 1243 (1989). A county, "in taking title to property for non-payment of taxes, acts solely in aid of the taxing authorities in collecting taxes against the property and for that purpose takes title to the property in its governmental capacity and not as a proprietor." Bigler, 626 P.2d at 1108. The county's purpose in acquiring and holding the property is thus the public purpose of safeguarding public revenues. We therefore hold that Nyman's claim to have established adverse possession against Summit County is subject to Utah Code section 78-12-13 and thus fails unless it "affirmatively appear[s]" that the county "sold, or otherwise disposed of, and conveyed" the disputed portion of Lot 17 to Nyman or his predecessors in interest. Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-13.

¶ 13 Nyman asserts that Summit County did in fact convey the disputed portion of Lot 17 to Nyman's predecessor in interest Emil Nyman when it sold Emil Nyman the former Backman property. Nyman bases this argument on Utah Code section 59-2-1325, which states "[a] tax due upon improvements upon real property assessed to a person other than the owner of the real property is a lien upon the property and improvements." Utah Code Ann. § 59-2-1325 (2000). Under Nyman's theory, when the Backmans failed to pay taxes on their land, they also failed to pay taxes on improvements, including the garage. Although the Backmans did not own the property underlying the garage, Summit County acquired this property through its tax lien against the garage and subsequently conveyed both the garage and its underlying land to Nyman's predecessor in interest.

¶ 14 We need not decide whether Nyman's interpretation of section 59-2-1325...