Recent Court Case Summaries

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 53 (click for full text) The Utah Court of Appeals held that a city’s appeal challenging a property owner’s easement to access a city street was rendered moot when the city later issued a permit for a curb cut on the property. Paul Bywater, a property owner in Brigham City, maintained access to...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 50 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals held that St. George’s ordinance prohibiting the operation of a retail tobacco business within the city did not conflict with state statute. M. Squared Enterprises, Inc. applied for a permit to operate a retail tobacco business in St. George City. The...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 37 (Click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals held that a landowner could not claim title to a disputed portion of property through boundary by acquiescence based upon the actions of a predecessor, as it could not show that the predecessor had included the disputed portion in its conveyance...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 35 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals reversed a decision by the district court that a developer could not relocate a utility easement taken by eminent domain. 3 Dimensional Contractors, Inc. and Benzer Development Solutions (collectively known as Benzer) applied for approval of its development, Zions Gate Estates,...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 Ut App 23 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals ruled that the district court properly dismissed an equal protections claim arising from a denial of an applicant’s rezone request to operate a landfill.  Moulding Investments sought a rezone of 225 acres of unzoned land to the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)...

2023 UT App 146 (Dec 7, 2023) (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals refused to adopt a bright-line legal rule that the placement of any permanent structure inside an easement of definite dimensions conveyed by grant is unreasonable as a matter of law. The Metropolitan Water District is a governmental entity that acquired–by warranty deed–an...

2023 UT App 121 (October 5, 2023) (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals reversed a district court ruling interpreting Weber County Code as requiring a particular developer to provide secondary water to subdivision lots in addition to culinary water. After lot owners became dissatisfied with the amount of water they were allowed to use from...

Utah Court of Appeals, 2023 UT App 120 (October 5, 2023) (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court did not exceed remand instructions by the Utah Supreme Court in ruling that a servient estate landowner had only the right to make “reasonable, minor changes” to the location of a prescriptive easement across...

Utah Court of Appeals 2023 UT App 110 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals remanded a prescriptive easement case back to the district court, holding that the lower court applied the wrong legal standards in concluding that the easement holder had no right to replace a defective metal swing gate with an electronic gate. C-B-K...

Utah Court of Appeals 2023 UT App 94 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals upheld the County’s denial of a homeowner’s requested special exception to ridgeline disturbance limits to build an additional accessory building on the same lot as his residence.  The county’s hillside stewardship zone, applicable to the property, provides a site grading provision...