Schiewe v. Farwell

• Citation: 867 P.2d 920,125 Idaho 46
• Decision Date: 26 October 1993
• Docket Number: No. 20216,20216
• Parties: Violet SCHIEWE, a Personal Representative for the Estate of H. Arthur Schiewe, and Violet Schiewe, an individual acting in her own personal capacity, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. William A. FARWELL and Irene Farwell, husband and wife, and Mary Curl and Marian Basterrechea, Defendants-Respondent. Boise March 1993 Term
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Idaho

Page 920

867 P.2d 920

125 Idaho 46

Violet SCHIEWE, a Personal Representative for the Estate of H. Arthur Schiewe, and Violet Schiewe, an individual acting in her own personal capacity, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. William A. FARWELL and Irene Farwell, husband and wife, and Mary Curl and Marian Basterrechea, Defendants-Respondent.

No. 20216.

Supreme Court of Idaho,

Boise March 1993 Term.

Oct. 26, 1993.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 28, 1993.

Dissenting Opinion of

Justice Bistline Dec. 28, 1993.

[125 Idaho 48] Emil F. Pike, Jr., Twin Falls, for plaintiff-appellant.

Parsons, Smith, Stone & Fletcher, Burley, for defendants-respondent. William Parsons argued.

TROUT, Justice.

I. BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

This is a landlord/tenant case involving an oral lease of land and a contract under the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The plaintiff, Violet Schiewe (Schiewe), originally brought this suit as a declaratory judgment action in district court to determine her rights as a tenant on land owned by respondents, Irene and William Farwell (Farwells), Mary Curl (Curl) and Marian Basterrechea (Basterrechea). Farwells leased the land from the other respondents and administered it, together with their own, as one parcel of approximately 2,800 acres. Schiewe and her husband leased the land for farming through Farwells under a written contract for the years 1970 through 1974. Thereafter from 1975 through 1987, Schiewe and her husband maintained possession as holdover tenants on a year-to-year basis under the same terms as their previous written lease.

In 1987, Farwells decided to enter 2,214 acres of the land into a CRP contract with the federal government. This program provides reimbursement to farm owners and operators who desire to take certain ground out of production. ¹ The Schiewes were included in the contract as operators of the ground in question who desired to participate in the program. The contract required that the participants place the land into the CRP program for a period of ten years.

After Mr. Schiewe died in July of 1987, his widow prepared the land by spraying for noxious weeds and planting grass seed pursuant to the requirements of the contract. Farwells and Schiewe split the cost of the seed and the herbicide and received partial reimbursement from the federal government. Schiewe paid for spraying of the land, repaired equipment and provided labor, for which she was not reimbursed. Schiewe and Farwells divided the profits under the CRP contract according to the same terms as their previous sharecropping agreement. Farwells and Schiewe were each to receive about $50,000 per year after Curl and Basterrechea had been paid.

In 1988, Farwells requested that Schiewe sign a five-year lease. Schiewe refused to sign the lease because she believed she had a right to remain on the land for ten years under the terms of the CRP contract. As a result, Farwells threatened to evict Schiewe as a holdover tenant and Schiewe brought an action in district court to determine if she had a right to remain on the land.

The district court held that Schiewe was operating under an oral year-to-year lease and did not have any extended rights to lease the land under the CRP contract. The court also found that the doctrine of equitable estoppel did not apply because Farwells did not misrepresent or conceal material facts in negotiations with Schiewe.

Schiewe appealed and the case was assigned to the Court of Appeals. In her brief on appeal, Schiewe argued that: (1) the CRP contract qualifies as a lease under the circumstances of this case; (2) the doctrines of equitable estoppel and part performance should apply; (3) she had a right to remain on the land as an "operator" under the CRP contract; and (4) Farwells should not have been awarded costs.

The Court of Appeals held that Schiewe had a right to stay on the land because the CRP contract created legal obligations which were independent of any obligations created by the prior lease. The Court also concluded that Schiewe did not intend to limit her argument to the theory of equitable estoppel and found that the trial court erred in not applying quasi-estoppel to this case. Farwells petitioned the Supreme Court to review the decision of the Court of Appeals reversing the trial court and this Court granted review.

II. THIS COURT WILL NOT ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF QUASI-ESTOPPEL AS THAT ISSUE WAS NOT RAISED BEFORE THE TRIAL COURT

In cases which come before the Supreme Court on a petition for review of a Court of Appeals decision, this Court gives serious consideration to the views of the Court of Appeals; however, this Court reviews the opinion of the trial court directly. Matter of Hanson, 121 Idaho 507, 509, 826 P.2d 468, 470 (1992). On appeal, neither this Court, nor the Court of Appeals, can consider issues which were not raised before the trial court. See Old Nat'l Bank of Washington v. Tate, 122 Idaho 401, 402, 834 P.2d 1317, 1318 (1992); Sun Valley Shopping Center, Inc. v. Idaho Power Co., 119 Idaho 87, 94, 803 P.2d 993, 1000 (1991). In her response to Farwells' petition for review, Schiewe asserts that she raised the issue of quasi-estoppel at trial. We disagree.

Quasi-estoppel "precludes a party from asserting, to another's disadvantage, a right inconsistent with a position previously taken by [them]. The doctrine applies where it would be unconscionable to allow a person to maintain a position inconsistent with one in which [they] acquiesced, or of which [they] accepted a benefit." KTVB, Inc. v. Boise City, 94 Idaho 279, 281, 486 P.2d 992, 994 (1971). The doctrine of quasi-estoppel is distinguishable from equitable estoppel in that "no concealment or misrepresentation of existing facts on the one side, nor ignorance or reliance on the other, is a necessary ingredient." Obray v. Mitchell, 98 Idaho 533, 538, 567 P.2d 1284, 1289 (1977); see also Hecla Mining Co. v. Star-Morning Mining Co., 122 Idaho 778, 784, 839 P.2d 1192, 1197 (1992).

At trial, Schiewe did not specifically plead quasi-estoppel, nor did she argue case law involving quasi-estoppel. In her reply to Farwells' counterclaim, Schiewe alleged as an affirmative defense that she materially changed her position in reliance on oral representations made by Farwells and, accordingly, Farwells should be estopped from denying the validity of the ten year contract. In briefs to the trial court, Schiewe alleged that Farwells made a false representation by entering into the ten-year contract without the intent to include Schiewe in the full ten years of the contract. The elements of false representation and reliance indicate that Schiewe raised and argued the theory of equitable estoppel, not quasi-estoppel. The trial court, after considering the pleadings, arguments and evidence presented by the parties, ruled on the issue of equitable estoppel which was presented to it and did not address the issue of quasi-estoppel. We conclude that the issue of quasi-estoppel was not raised at trial; accordingly, we will not now address the issue on appeal. See Old Nat'l Bank of Washington, 122 Idaho at 401, 834 P.2d at 1318.

III. THE CRP CONTRACT DID NOT CREATE A RIGHT TO REMAIN ON THE LAND FOR TEN YEARS

The district court found that Schiewe was operating solely under a year-to-year tenancy and no additional rights to remain on the property were created by the CRP contract. We agree.

The CRP contract requires an operator to produce some proof of a right to operate the farm land for the term of the contract. In order to be eligible for the program under Section 2A(1) of the contract, an operator

must have operated [the] cropland for the period beginning not less than 3 years prior to the close of the applicable period for entering into contracts with CCC [Commodity Credit Corporation] or January 1, 1985, whichever is later, and must provide satisfactory evidence that such person will operate such cropland for the contract period.

(Emphasis added). This provision is in accordance with the requirements of 16 U.S.C. § 3835(a)(2)(B).

In this case, Schiewe contends she had a lease for the term of the CRP contract because she is the operator of the cropland. Although a lease or some proof of a continuing right to operate the ground is necessary to comply with the CRP contract, the contract itself does not create such a lease. By requiring "satisfactory evidence," it is clear that the contract contemplates that there must be some outside proof of the operator's right to continue to operate the land for the contract period.

Because Schiewe and Farwells were permitted to enter into the agreement we must assume that some appropriate proof was presented to the CCC prior to entering into the contract. There is nothing, however, in the record before this Court which demonstrates what, if anything, Schiewe might have provided as independent evidence that she would operate the cropland for the contract period. We are left with only the evidence that she had been farming under a year-to-year oral lease from 1974 to 1987, and no new lease was signed before or after entering the CRP contract. Furthermore, the CRP contract does not provide for any of the standard lease provisions which we would expect to find in a document governing the possession of land, such as payment of property taxes, liability insurance and maintenance of buildings on the property.

Consequently, although Schiewe may be a party to the contract, this contract does not create a right to remain on the cropland for the contract period where no independent right exists. The provisions of the CRP contract specifically contemplate that owners or operators may change during the contract term. Section 26 states that a new owner or operator may become a participant in the contract if such a person assumes the obligations of the previous participants in the contract. Section 28 of the CRP contract states that the contract "may not be revoked or revised unless upon...