Schaer v. State By and Through Utah Dept. of Transp.
| Citation | 657 P.2d 1337 |
| Decision Date | 10 January 1983 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 18009,18081,s. 18009 |
| Court | Supreme Court of Utah |
| Parties | Harold G. SCHAER, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. The STATE of Utah, By and Through the UTAH DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City Corporation, Utah Power & Light Company and Lincoln T. Hanson, Defendants and Appellants. Harold G. SCHAER, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. The STATE of Utah, By and Through the UTAH DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City Corporation, Utah Power & Light Company and Lincoln T. Hanson, Defendants and Appellants. |
David L. Wilkinson, Stephen J. Sorenson, Ted L. Cannon, Kevan F. Smith, Roger F. Cutler, Judy Lever and Rosemary Richardson, Salt Lake City, for defendants and appellants.
Calvin L. Rampton and Lawrence J. Jensen, Salt Lake City, for plaintiff and respondent.
This case arose because the plaintiff Harold G. Schaer and Salt Lake City Corporation (hereinafter "Salt Lake City") failed to reach an agreement regarding the purchase of the plaintiff's property for expansion of a proposed park. The dispute focuses on whether the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel preclude the plaintiff from maintaining his present cause of action. The plaintiff instituted the present suit claiming that a certain graded road, commonly referred to as the "dugway road," is a public thoroughfare under U.C.A., 1953, § 27-12-89, which would provide access to the plaintiff's property. The trial court granted the plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment, holding that the dugway road is a public thoroughfare under § 27-12-89 and denied the State of Utah's (hereinafter "State") Motion for Summary Judgment based on the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel. Subsequently, the plaintiff and Salt Lake City filed opposing Motions for Summary Judgment claiming, respectively, that the width of the dugway road is fifty and twenty-five and one-half feet. The trial court granted the plaintiff's motion and denied Salt Lake City's motion. Both the State and Salt Lake City appealed from those rulings, which appeals were consolidated for the convenience of the parties. 1 We affirm in part, reverse in part and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Prior to 1967, the plaintiff owned approximately 22.8 acres of property located near the mouth of Parley's Canyon in Salt Lake County. At that time, there were several routes of ingress and egress to the plaintiff's land. In July of 1967, trial was held in the Third District Court in which the State condemned 4.6 of the approximate 22.8 acres of the plaintiff's property for construction of a highway system. The condemnation deprived the plaintiff of access to his remaining property from the north and the west, leaving only a possibility of access via the dugway road. Thus, in the 1967 litigation, the plaintiff contended that he was entitled to severance damages because his remaining property was effectively landlocked as a result of the condemnation. After trial, the Third District Court entered the following findings regarding the plaintiff's remaining property:
(a) There is no reasonable access to said remainder property which would permit the same to be economically and feasibly developed in the reasonably foreseeable future.
(b) That a sewage disposal system cannot be economically and feasibly designed.
(c) That it has lost its advantages of annexation to Salt Lake City, potential development as part of the subdivision proximate to the Salt Lake Country Club and further, has lost its dedicated and reserved access way to the north and west.
(d) That it can no longer be reasonably and feasibly developed for residential use presently or in the foreseeable future.
(e) That the highest and best use of the remainder property is either speculative or as a public park.
Based on its Findings of Fact, the Third District Court granted the plaintiff $30,000 as just compensation for the condemnation of the 4.6 acres and $76,755 as severance damage to the plaintiff's remaining property.
In 1979, the State was involved in an inverse condemnation action brought by Harvey Hanson, an owner of property adjacent to the plaintiff's remaining property. In that action, the State claimed that the dugway road was a public thoroughfare. The State's assertion was based on an alleged public use of the dugway road sufficient to constitute a dedication to the public under U.C.A., 1953, § 27-12-89. However, that case was settled by the parties prior to a determination by the court of the State's assertion that the dugway road was a public thoroughfare.
The present suit was instituted after the plaintiff and Salt Lake City failed to reach an agreement regarding the purchase of the plaintiff's remaining property for the expansion of a proposed park. The disagreement between the parties focused on whether the plaintiff's property had access suitable for residential development by means of the dugway road. Thus, the plaintiff filed suit requesting a ruling by the trial court that the dugway road was a highway dedicated to the public use pursuant to U.C.A., 1953, § 27-12-89. The plaintiff then filed a Motion for Summary Judgment based on its assertion that the dugway road was a public thoroughfare under § 27-12-89. The State filed an opposing Motion for Summary Judgment which did not controvert the plaintiff's evidence on the issue of a public thoroughfare, but rather argued that the plaintiff's position in the 1967 litigation precluded him from maintaining his present cause of action by operation of the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel. Salt Lake City orally joined in the State's motion at the time it was argued. The trial court denied the State's motion and partially granted the plaintiff's motion, thereby declaring the dugway road to be a public thoroughfare, but reserving for trial the issue regarding its width. The plaintiff subsequently filed another Motion for Summary Judgment claiming that the established width of the dugway road was fifty feet. Salt Lake City countered by filing a Motion for Summary Judgment claiming that the width of the dugway road did not exceed twenty-five and one-half feet. The trial court denied Salt Lake City's motion and granted the plaintiff's motion, establishing the width of the dugway road at fifty feet. Both the State and Salt Lake City appeal the denial of their Motions for Summary Judgment and the resulting granting of the plaintiff's motions.
On appeal, the State and Salt Lake City advance several points of error. They contend that the trial court erred in denying the State's Motion for Summary Judgment because of the applicability of the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel. In addition, Salt Lake City argues that the trial court erred in granting the plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment that the dugway road is a public thoroughfare because (1) the finding of a public thoroughfare was based on controverted evidence which is improper for summary judgment and (2) the evidence fails to meet the elements of proof necessary under U.C.A., 1953, § 27-12-89. Salt Lake City also argues that the trial court erred in granting the plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment on the width of the dugway road because its ruling was not supported by the evidence.
The appellants, the State and Salt Lake City, assert that the district court's previous finding in the 1967 litigation, that no reasonable access existed to the plaintiff's property, implies a finding that the dugway road is not a public thoroughfare. Thus, the appellants argue that, because of that implied finding, the plaintiff's present cause of action is barred by the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel. On this basis, the appellants contend that the trial court erred in denying the State's Motion for Summary Judgment.
There are certain distinctions to be made in the application of the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel. In order to determine which doctrine is to be properly applied, one must focus on whether the second claim, demand, or cause of action is different from that of the first:
In order for res judicata to apply, both suits must involve the same parties or their privies and also the same cause of action; and this precludes the relitigation of all issues that could have been litigated as well as those that were, in fact, litigated in the prior action ....
Collateral estoppel, on the other hand, arises from a ifferent cause of action and prevents parties or their privies from relitigating facts and issues in the second suit that were fully litigated in the first suit.
Searle Bros. v. Searle, Utah, 588 P.2d 689, 690 (1978) (emphasis added) (citations omitted). See also East Mill Creek Water Co. v. Salt Lake City, 108 Utah 315, 159 P.2d 863 (1945); Voyles v. Straka, 77 Utah 171, 292 P. 913 (1930). Accord Cromwell v. County of Sac, 94 U.S. 351, 24 L.Ed. 195 (1876). Thus, it is important to recognize that although the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel are closely related, they are usually mutually exclusive. Where the claim, demand, or cause of action is the same in both cases, res judicata applies. But where the claim, demand, or cause of action is different in the two cases, then collateral estoppel is applicable.
Accordingly, we have determined that res judicata is not applicable to the present case because it is based on a different claim, demand, or cause of action than that of the 1967 litigation. 2 The two causes of action rest on a different state of facts and evidence of a different kind or character is necessary to sustain the two causes of action. Moreover, the evidence of the two causes of action relates to the status of the property in two completely different and separate time periods. Thus, the doctrine of res judicata does not apply to preclude the plaintiff from maintaining his present cause of action.
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