Case Title: Gregor v. City of Fairbanks

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: alaska

Court: Alaska Supreme Court

Date: 1979-09-14T00:00:00Z

Document:
Gregor v. City of Fairbanks  599 P.2d 743 (1979) Thelma GREGOR, a/k/a Thelma Hayes, a/k/a Thelma White, Appellant, v. CITY OF FAIRBANKS, a Municipal Corporation, Appellee. No. 4154. Supreme Court of Alaska. September 14, 1979. Thomas G. Burke, Seattle, Wash., and Irwin Ravin, Fairbanks, for appellant. Herbert P. Kuss, Deputy City Atty., Fairbanks, for appellee. Before RABINOWITZ, C.J., and CONNOR, BOOCHEVER, BURKE and MATTHEWS, JJ. *744 OPINION PER CURIAM. On August 16, 1975, the City of Fairbanks published a notice of sale of city-owned property including Tax Lot 1 in Tract B of the Graehl Subdivision.[1] The notice stated that the former record owner of the parcel was unknown, but that any person establishing that he or she was the former record owner or the assignee of the former record owner could repurchase the property from the city upon payment of back taxes and assessments.[2] Thelma Gregor responded to the notice, asserting that she was the owner of Tax Lot 1, and she tendered the sum of $3000 to the city as the full amount due on the property within the time allowed for repurchase by the former record owner. The city rejected Gregor's tender on the ground that she had not established that she was the former record owner of the parcel in question. Gregor then filed a complaint in superior court against the City of Fairbanks[3] requesting the court to establish her right of redemption with respect to Tax Lot 1 in Tract B of the Graehl Subdivision and to cancel all prior tax foreclosure deeds pertaining to the property.[4] The city moved for summary judgment,[5] primarily on the *745 basis that Gregor had failed to offer any proof that she was the former record owner of Tax Lot 1 within the meaning of § 11.131(c) of the Fairbanks Code of Ordinances. That ordinance provides: The former record owner of any property listed in the auction notice, or his assigns, shall have the right to repurchase such property within sixty (60) days following the date of first publication of the notice.[6] After oral argument was heard on the motion and the opposition thereto, the superior court granted summary judgment for the City of Fairbanks and dismissed, with prejudice, Gregor's claim for relief. This appeal followed. The main issue presented in this appeal is whether the superior court was correct in finding that Thelma Gregor, as the non-moving party, had produced no admissible evidence by affidavit reasonably tending to dispute the city's evidence that she was not the record owner of the property.[7] In support of its motion for summary judgment, the city submitted to the court an affidavit of a title examiner which concluded that Gregor had never been either a record owner of Tax Lot 1 or the assignee of a record owner. The title examiner's search was "limited to recorded instruments and documents of record in the Fairbanks Recording District," however. The trial court also apparently took judicial notice of the fact that the Gregor deed was not listed in the index of deeds. Appellant Gregor filed some fifteen affidavits in opposition to the motion for summary judgment which purported to establish her ownership of the land in question. Her own affidavits stated that she recalled recording a deed on the parcel at the time she received the deed from Alex Husak in 1945, but the page on which her deed was recorded was no longer in the official documents of record in the Fairbanks recording office.[8] Several of the other affiants supporting Gregor's opposition to the motion claimed to have seen the deed from Husak to Gregor and all of the affiants spoke of her ownership of the land in question. Gregor was unable to produce any documentation of the existence of the deed from her own personal records, however. In light of the record in this case, we find persuasive Gregor's argument that there is a material dispute as to whether her deed was ever properly recorded.[9] As *746 the non-moving party, she need only "set forth specific facts showing that she could produce admissible evidence reasonably tending to dispute the movant's evidence."[10] We think that Gregor's statement in her affidavit at least "reasonably" disputes the city's evidence showing lack of recording.[11] Thus, we find it necessary to vacate the summary judgment in this case, and remand the matter to the superior court for further proceedings.[12] Reversed and Remanded.