Wooster v. Carbon County School Dist. No. 1

• Decision Date: 14 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-146.,04-146.
• Citation: 109 P.3d 893,2005 WY 47
• Parties: Albert WOOSTER, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. CARBON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, a local government entity; and Darlene Johanson, individually, Appellees (Defendants).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

109 P.3d 893

2005 WY 47

Albert WOOSTER, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. CARBON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, a local government entity; and Darlene Johanson, individually, Appellees (Defendants).

No. 04-146.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

April 14, 2005.

Rehearing Denied May 10, 2005.

Representing Appellant: Robert W. Horn of Robert W. Horn, P.C., Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and Heather Noble, Jackson, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee Carbon County School District No. 1: Catherine MacPherson of MacPherson, Kelly & Thompson, LLC, Rawlins, Wyoming.

Before HILL, C.J., and GOLDEN, KITE, VOIGT, and BURKE, JJ.

VOIGT, Justice.

[¶ 1] The district court granted summary judgment to the appellee in this negligence action because the appellant's notice of governmental claim did not meet constitutional and statutory requirements. We agree and dismiss this appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

ISSUES

[¶ 2] The dispositive issues in this appeal may be stated as follows:

1. Does the district court have subject matter jurisdiction in a Wyoming Governmental Claims Act case where the claim does not meet the requirements of Article 16, § 7 of the Wyoming Constitution?¹

2. Can a defective notice of claim presented within the two-year period of limitation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. 1-39-113(a) (LexisNexis 2003) be cured by presentment of a non-defective notice of claim after that period has passed?²

3. Is the holding of Beaulieu v. Florquist, 2004 WY 31, ¶ 8, 86 P.3d 863, 866 (Wyo.2004) (Beaulieu II) that governmental claims, when presented, must meet the requirements of Article 16, § 7 of the Wyoming Constitution, to be applied prospectively only?

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶ 3] Our standard of review of summary judgments is well known and will not be repeated here. See Beaulieu v. Florquist, 2001 WY 33, ¶¶ 8-10, 20 P.3d 521, 525-26 (Wyo.2001) (Beaulieu I)

.

DISCUSSION

[¶ 4] The material facts are undisputed. On September 18, 2001, the appellant was driving a tractor-trailer that collided with a school bus driven by the appellee's employee. On July 16, 2002, the appellant presented to the appellee a notice of claim alleging injuries and damage resulting from the collision. The notice of claim was signed only by the appellant's counsel. On November 4, 2002, the appellant filed a complaint in district court alleging, inter alia, presentment of the notice of claim.

[¶ 5] On March 25, 2004, this Court issued its decision in Beaulieu II.³ On the following day, the appellee filed a motion for summary judgment alleging that the appellant had not signed his notice of claim and it was not signed under penalty of perjury. The appellant responded on March 31, 2004, by presenting to the appellee an amended notice of claim, duly signed by the appellant and certified under penalty of perjury. Clearly, the amended notice of claim was presented more than two years after the date of the collision.

[¶ 6] Further detailed analysis of this case is unnecessary. The ruling of the district court is correct. The law is as follows: (1) when presented to the governmental entity, a notice of claim must be signed by the claimant and certified under penalty of perjury, as required by the Wyoming Constitution; (2) such presentment, and the allegation thereof, is a condition precedent to suit and is, therefore, jurisdictional; (3) the limitation period of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-39-113(a) is not a mere procedural statute of limitations, but is a jurisdictional non-claim statute, meaning that a defective notice of claim cannot be cured via the relation-back doctrine by presentment of a non-defective notice of claim after the period has passed; (4) the holding in Beaulieu II that a notice of claim must meet the requirements of Article 16, § 7 of the Wyoming Constitution is not applied prospectively only, because such has always been the law, as was stated in Beaulieu I, three years earlier.⁴See Bell v. Schell, 2004 WY 153, ¶¶ 10-11, 16-36, 101 P.3d 465, 468, 469-76 (Wyo.2004)

; Yoak v. Ide, 2004 WY 32, ¶ 6, 86 P.3d 872, 874 (Wyo.2004); Beaulieu II, 2004 WY 31, ¶¶ 6-15,

86 P.3d at 866-69; and Beaulieu I, 2001 WY 33, ¶¶ 12-18,

20 P.3d at 526-27.

[¶ 7] As to the third issue, that being prospective application of the ruling that governmental claims must meet the signature and certification requirements of the state constitution, we will add the following. Long ago, this Court declared that district courts do not have jurisdiction over governmental claims that were not presented to the governmental entity as required by Article 16, § 7 of the Wyoming Constitution. Price v. State Highway Commission, 62 Wyo. 385, 396, 167 P.2d 309, 312 (1946); Utah Const. Co. v. State Highway Commission, 45 Wyo. 403, 422-25, 19 P.2d 951, 954-55 (1933). In Beaulieu I, we held that, inasmuch as a notice of claim that did not meet the constitutional signature and certification requirements was not a valid claim, the period of limitation found in the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act did not begin to run upon presentment of such deficient claim. In reaching that conclusion, we commented upon the "jurisdictional impact of establishing for purposes of pleading the date of the claim and its appropriate certification...." Beaulieu I, 2001 WY 33, ¶ 18, 20 P.3d at 527. The very clear holding of Beaulieu I was this:

The requirement is clear that an itemized statement in writing is to be filed, which is certified under penalty of perjury. Such a statement must be signed by the claimant or the charge of perjury could not lie. In addition, it is to be filed with the officer or officers charged with the duty to audit the claim.

Id. at ¶ 15, 20 P.3d at 527.

[¶ 8] This Court has always required that governmental claims comply with Article 16, § 7 of the Wyoming Constitution. Earlier cases primarily dealt with the issue of presentment of a claim to the governmental entity. Wyoming State Highway Dept. v. Napolitano, 578 P.2d 1342, 1345-46 (Wyo.1978); Awe v. University of Wyoming, 534 P.2d 97, 100 (Wyo.1975), overruled on other grounds by Dye by Dye v. Fremont County School Dist. No. 24, 820 P.2d 982 (Wyo.1991)

; Price, 167 P.2d at 312; Utah Const. Co., 19 P.2d at 954-55. Beaulieu I established that governmental claims must comply not just with the presentment requirement of the constitution, but also with its signature and certification requirements. The only change in Beaulieu II was the recognition that, if these requirements were jurisdictional, they could not be waived as had erroneously been held in Martinez v. City of Cheyenne, 791 P.2d 949, 958 (Wyo.1990),

overruled by Beaulieu II, 2004 WY 31,

86 P.3d 863.

[¶ 9] The collision that occasioned this lawsuit occurred approximately six months after the publication of Beaulieu I, which opinion clearly stated that governmental claims must be signed by the claimant under penalty of perjury. The appellant's notice of claim was presented to the appellee nearly ten months later — sixteen months after the publication of Beaulieu I. Thus, the later publication of Beaulieu II did not establish a new principle of law that was relevant to this determinative issue, making prospective application inappropriate.⁵ See Hanesworth v. Johnke, 783 P.2d 173, 177 (Wyo.1989)

.

[¶ 10] In response to the dissent's earnest plea for equity in the form of prospective application of Beaulieu II, we feel compelled to review to some extent Wyoming's governmental claims jurisprudence, with our focus on subject matter jurisdiction. We begin with Houtz v. Board of Com'rs of Uinta County, 11 Wyo. 152, 70 P. 840, 842 (1902), where we noted that the constitutional and statutory requirements that governmental claims be verified "has for its object a showing of good faith and honesty in the presentation of the bill...." While deciding the case on other grounds, we noted that the notice of claim at issue was neither certified nor presented properly. Id. at 844. Perhaps presaging Beaulieu I, we found that a notice of claim that was not "presented in form" likely was not intended to be an attempt to comply with the claim statute. Houtz, 70 P. at 844. Significantly, we did not distinguish between the constitution's verification and presentment requirements in discussing whether the questioned instrument was a governmental claim.

[¶ 11] In Utah Const. Co., 19 P.2d at 955 (quoting Gates v. State, 128 N.Y. 221, 228, 28 N.E. 373 (1891)), we made clear that, because the State cannot be sued except as it has, itself, allowed, compliance with the constitution and the statutes implementing the constitution's mandates is "`a question of jurisdiction [and] could be raised at any time, and could not be waived....'" Thus, "[t]he objection that the plaintiff has failed to perform a condition that would have given him a right to sue raises a question of jurisdiction." Id. Furthermore, while the specific issue before the court was the failure to present a governmental claim, rather than to verify it, this Court held that implementing statutes "cannot be given a meaning that would permit an evasion of the mandatory constitutional provision[.]" Id. at 953. Carried into the present controversy, that means that the courts cannot interpret governmental claims statutes to allow less than the constitution requires; courts cannot give themselves jurisdiction over claims that are not signed or certified to under penalty of perjury.

[¶ 12] In Price, 167 P.2d at 312, we sustained the dismissal with prejudice of an amended petition because the governmental claim had never been presented to the state auditor. We did not use the phrase "subject matter jurisdiction," but we described compliance with constitution and statute as "a condition to the right to sue[.]" Id. The same result was obtained in Awe, 534 P.2d at 99. Although Awe once again involved the failure to present a claim to the state auditor, we went beyond presentment and noted that "no sworn or certified claim of any sort" was presented. Id. at 98. We repeatedly...