Case Title: Sawyer v. City of Sheridan

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: wyoming

Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Date: 1990-06-25T00:00:00Z

Document:
Sawyer v. City of Sheridan1990 WY 67793 P.2d 476Case Number: 90-9Decided: 06/25/1990Supreme Court of Wyoming
THOMAS A. SAWYER AND 
LOEVA SAWYER, HUSBAND AND WIFE, D/B/A WONG VILLAGE, APPELLANTS 
(PLAINTIFFS),

v.

THE CITY OF SHERIDAN, 
WYOMING, A MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, 

APPELLEE 
(DEFENDANT).

Appeal from the District 
Court, Sheridan County, James N. Wolfe, J.

Micheal K. 
Shoumaker, Sheridan, for appellants.

Robert W. Brown 
of Lonabaugh and Riggs, Sheridan, for appellee.

Before 
CARDINE, C.J., and THOMAS, URBIGKIT, MACY and GOLDEN, JJ.

URBIGKIT, Justice.

[¶1]      Municipal 
government damage immunity in a lawsuit asserting that appellee, City of 
Sheridan, was negligent in requiring the use of iron pipe in a mobile home 
village owned by appellants, Thomas A. and Loeva Sawyer, d/b/a Wong Village 
(Sawyers), is the issue we address. The order of the district court is affirmed 
in granting summary judgment for the City of Sheridan because it had immunity 
within the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act, W.S. 1-39-101 through 
1-39-120.

[¶2]      This matter was 
initiated when the Sawyers filed a claim against the City of Sheridan by letter 
dated April 29, 1988. The Sawyers asserted they built a mobile home village 
during 1976-77. In conformance with the City of Sheridan's then extant general 
code for mobile home parks, the Sawyers used iron pipe in the mobile home 
village's water system after a building variance to use PVC pipe had been 
denied.1 During May through July 1987, a 
number of leaks were discovered in the mobile home village's water line. Both 
soil condition aggressive environment and dissimilar metal electrolic 
interaction were implicated in the pipe failure. Investigation by the Sawyers 
and the Sheridan City Engineer revealed that the iron pipe had corroded and then 
commenced leaking. The Sawyers further alleged that the ordinance requiring iron 
pipe was negligently adopted without adequate testing or research and that the 
ordinance had been enforced arbitrarily and discriminatorily in that other 
mobile home villages had been given variances to use PVC pipe for water systems. 
The Sawyers asked $157,000 in damages for the cost of repairs and for lost 
revenue during the time the mobile home village was under repair. The City of 
Sheridan declined to pay the claim and suit was commenced by complaint filed on 
March 31, 1989.

[¶3]      Counsel for the 
City of Sheridan filed a motion for summary judgment acknowledging that, 
although the mobile home village was built in 1976-77 and a variance was refused 
at that time, the Sawyers' claim against the City of Sheridan did not accrue 
until 1987 when the damage to the iron pipe was discovered. The City of Sheridan 
asserted its immunity under Wyoming's Governmental Claims Act and demonstrated 
through affidavits that it had no insurance coverage extending its liability 
beyond that contained in the Act. Also, because its officials and employees were 
performing discretionary acts of a legislative, quasi-legislative, or 
quasi-judicial nature, the City of Sheridan claimed immunity under the doctrine 
of discretionary act immunity.

[¶4]      In response to 
the City of Sheridan's motion for summary judgment, the Sawyers maintained that 
W.S. 1-39-108(a) provided a window for their claim.

(a) A governmental entity 
is liable for damages resulting from bodily injury, wrongful death or property 
damage caused by the negligence of public employees while acting within the 
scope of their duties in the operation of public utilities and services 
including gas, electricity, water, solid or liquid waste collection or disposal, 
heating and ground transportation.

W.S. 
1-39-108(a). The Sawyers also argued that the acts of the City of Sheridan and 
its officials were ministerial rather than legislative and, therefore, the City 
of Sheridan could not seek refuge in the doctrine of legislative immunity. See 
Pickle v. Board of County Com'rs of County of Platte, 764 P.2d 262, 266 (Wyo. 
1988) and Oroz v. Board of County Com'rs of Carbon County, 575 P.2d 1155, 1158 
(Wyo. 1978).

[¶5]      The district 
court granted summary judgment for the City of Sheridan. The district court 
found that the City of Sheridan had no insurance coverage for the alleged 
damages and that the Sawyers' claim was not one which fell within the statutory 
exceptions to the general immunity provided for in W.S. 1-39-104.2

[¶6]      Wyoming's 
Governmental Claims Act is a close-ended tort claims act. White v. State, 784 P.2d 1313 (Wyo. 1989); Abelseth v. City of Gillette, 752 P.2d 430, 433 (Wyo. 
1988); Boehm v. Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, 748 P.2d 704, 709 (Wyo. 1987). 
By this, we simply mean that unless the claim falls within one of the statutory 
exceptions, it will be barred. The Sawyers assert their claim falls within W.S. 
1-39-108(a), but even a superficial analysis of that exception to immunity 
reveals that the claim asserted is not encompassed by that statute. The asserted 
wrongdoing on the part of the City of Sheridan does not spring from "operation" 
of a public utility. The claim is clearly one which asserts that the Sheridan 
City Council was negligent in adopting an ordinance which proved over time to be 
unsatisfactory or perhaps even ill-considered.

[¶7]      Enactment of a 
municipal building code addresses a public benefit. 57 Am.Jur.2d Municipal, 
County, School and State Tort Liability § 221 (1988). A city may regulate the 
weight and grade of plumbing materials to be used and where it does not plainly 
appear that the requirements of the ordinance lack any direct or substantial 
relation to public health and welfare, the ordinance is presumed to be sound. 
Kleinhein v. Board of Com'rs of City of Wichita, 98 Kan. 431, 157 P. 1190, 1191 
(1916); 7 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations § 24.338 (3rd ed. 1989). Here, the 
complaint is not that a city employee committed an act of negligence in the 
operation of the water system; but, rather, that the Sheridan City Council 
should never have enacted an ordinance which included a requirement to use iron 
pipe. The claim simply does not fit in the niche provided by W.S. 
1-39-108(a).

[¶8]      The summary 
judgment in favor of the City of Sheridan is affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

1 The record which results 
from summary judgment does not reveal the source of this building and use code 
or whether some national code had been adopted by reference or in complete 
text.

2 Although it is clearly 
surplusage since we agree with the district court that Wyoming's Governmental 
Claims Act provides immunity to the City of Sheridan under these circumstances, 
the district court also found that the acts of the City of Sheridan, in 
requiring iron pipe, were not a quasi-legislative act which would entitle the 
City of Sheridan to the protection of legislative immunity. We need not address 
this issue, because it is clear that the City of Sheridan is immune from this 
suit, but we note in passing that the district court's finding in this regard 
may be inconsistent with discussion in Pickle, 764 P.2d 262 where we considered 
enactment of zoning ordinance or regulations which are arguably similar to 
adoption of general building codes.