Case Summaries

2020 UT 58 (August 17, 2020) The Utah Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision that UDOT’s condemnation of land to mitigate environmental impacts of a transportation project was made under proper authority, regardless that the decision to condemn resulted from a settlement agreement to litigation over the project. The Court additionally reversed the lower court’s decision that the project’s...

Utah Court of Appeals 2020 UT App 108 (July 16, 2020) The Utah Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s denial of a boundary by acquiescence claim that concluded the landowner could not have acquiesced to a fence as a boundary because the landowner’s intent was that the fence be built for animal containment and not as a boundary.  In...

Utah Supreme Court 2020 UT 35 (Click for full text of opinion) On direct appeal, the Utah Supreme Court reversed a district court holding that a party may not rely on post-valuation facts and circumstances to prove severance damages. Damages for a taking are to be assessed as of the date of the taking. The measure of damages is market...

Utah Court of Appeals May 21, 2020 2020 UT App 79 (Click for full text) ***Subsequent history: The Utah Supreme Court granted review of this decision and issued an opinion that reversed a part of this ruling. Please see Northern Monticello Alliance v. San Juan County, 2022 UT 10 (“NMA I”); Further proceedings following that opinion also led to another...

2020 UT 29 (May 18, 2020) Background. Owners of undeveloped land located outside of the incorporated boundaries of Salt Lake City (the “city”), but within the city’s approved water-service area, sought to have the city provide water services.  The city, disputing its obligation to provide water to a subdivision not within its boundaries, brought declaratory action to determine the landowners’...

2020 UT 23 (May 8, 2020) Subsequent history at SRB Investment v. Spencer (SRB II), 2023 UT App 120 Background. SRB Investment Co. (SRB) purchased property to use as a cabin vacation spot for its members. Access to the property by prescriptive easement across the Spencer property had been established by the previous owner for ranching and farming purposes. When...

2020 UT 22 (May 8, 2020) Background. Since August 1996 a family used a road that went across a neighboring property, to access their cabin property. In June 2016, the landowner of the neighboring property told the family that they could no longer use the road and attempted to block access to it. However, the family continued to use the...

2020 UT App 41 The Utah Court of Appeals held that a development agreement was unambiguous as to transferable development rights and that the city’s rezoning of the property was a legislative act and was validly reversed by referendum.  A developer (original developer) entered into a development agreement with Mapleton City regarding 245 acres of undeveloped real estate on Mapleton’s...

2020 UT 10 (February 28, 2020) The Utah Supreme Court clarified prior cases regarding severance damages in partial takings and held that a berm supporting a freeway overpass constituted an “improvement” in statute justifying a jury award of severance damages. UDOT’s project to widen I-15 and replace an existing interchange resulted in the taking of a small portion of property...

2020 UT App 12 (January 24, 2020) (cert denied) The Utah Court of Appeals held that city, by adopting a zoning status agreement without public hearing, committed an unlawful act of contract zoning. A developer just outside of Moab proposed a mixed use residential, commercial, and hotel development. The landowner and City entered into a pre-annexation agreement to facilitate annexation...