Case Summaries

Utah Supreme Court 2022 UT 19 (Click for text of opinion) The Utah Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals’ ruling that in order for an acquisition of property to be made under a “threat of eminent domain” for purposes of right of first refusal, the government entity must have specifically authorized the use of eminent domain by approving an...

Utah Court of Appeals 2022 UT App 63 (Click for full text) The Utah Court of Appeals upheld an injunction against the ongoing use of an owner’s property for short-term rentals in the city’s agricultural zone as not qualifying for a legal nonconforming use against recent ordinance changes.  Background: In 2019, South Weber adopted an ordinance regulating short-term rentals (STR),...

Utah Court of Appeals 2022 UT App 64 (Click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a boundary by acquiescence claim where the claimant did not produce clear and convincing evidence of each element of the claim.  In 2012, Mr. Huck bought a property in the Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake City that...

Utah Supreme Court 2022 UT 10 (Click for full text) **Subsequent History: following remand from this case, the Utah Court of Appeals issued another opinion arising out of an appeal of the district court’s decision in this case. See, Northern Monticello Alliance v. San Juan County (NMA II). The Utah Supreme Court held that a third-party’s statutory right to appeal...

Utah Court of Appeals 2021 UT App 146 (Click for full text) The Utah Court of Appeals vacated the district court’s holding in a claim for boundary by acquiescence and remanded for further proceedings, concluding that the district court had made a number of mistakes in the fact finding process, inherently making its legal conclusions unsupportable, and making it impossible...

Utah Supreme Court 2021 UT 54 (Click for full text) The Utah Supreme Court upheld dismissal of a breach-of-contract claim for exceeding the scope of a contractual parking easement as beyond the 6-year statute of limitations for contracts, and concluded that in so limiting the claim, the court did not wrongfully grant an effectively greater easement interest than had been...

Utah Supreme Court 2021 UT 48 (click for full text of opinion) In this government records appeal case, the Utah Supreme Court held that a statutory claimant must have statutory standing, and the presence of traditional or alternative standing will not cure a statutory deficiency. (The Court’s holding in this case likely has relevant application to other statutory standing processes...

Utah Supreme Court 2021 UT 46 (Click for full text) The Utah Supreme Court clarified the procedural standards for a citizen challenge to a local land use law by referendum, holding that the citizens’ challenge to the denial of their referendum petition was properly filed in district court and not as an extraordinary writ to the Utah Supreme Court. A...

United States 10th Circuit Court of Appeals 6 F.4th 1216 (click for full text of opinion) The 10th Circuit denied a regulatory takings claim under the 5th amendment of the federal constitution as unripe because despite the City’s denial of a rezone application, the property owner had not alternatively sought a planned development review that would have otherwise allowed the...

Utah Court of Appeals 2021 UT App 76 (Click for full text) The Utah Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s dismissal of a suit to recognize a prescriptive easement.  Background: A developer recently purchased two contiguous parcels of property (“Property”) on the northwest corner of 200 South and State Street, which is occupied by a fast-food restaurant and a...