Opinion ID: 2543215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The trial court's ruling on plaintiffs' standing

Text: ¶ 19 The dissenting opinion raises a threshold issue which we are obliged to address before we proceed to review the merits of the summary judgment on appeal. The dissent takes the position that there is no clear paper trail of the trial court's ruling on plaintiffs' standing raised in defendants' dismissal motion and asserted as an affirmative defense in intervenors' answer. ¶ 20 The record before this Court shows that the trial court did make a determination that plaintiffs have standing to maintain this declaratory judgment action. On July 15, 2003, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss for, among other grounds, lack of standing. The motion was fully briefed. On September 25, 2003, the trial court heard arguments on the dismissal motion and entered a minute order overruling the motion. The trial court memorialized the September 25th ruling in a journal entry filed on October 6, 2003. ¶ 21 The appellate record does not show that the intervenors directly challenged plaintiffs' standing in their summary judgment filings. The dissenting opinion correctly notes that the answers filed by the municipal intervenors alleged that plaintiffs lacked standing as an affirmative defense. But the dissenting opinion reaches to find a standing challenge in the attack on plaintiffs' status as permit holders in the municipal intervenors' cross-motion for partial summary judgment. It also reaches to find a standing challenge in the attack on plaintiffs' lack of economic injury in the municipal intervenors' argument responding to plaintiffs' summary judgment argument that plaintiffs have not suffered an unconstitutional taking. ¶ 22 The appellate record shows that defendants directly challenged plaintiffs' standing before the trial court. The trial court ruled against the defendants on their challenge to plaintiffs' standing in a journal entry filed of record. Intervenors did not file a motion to dismiss plaintiffs' petition for lack of standing nor did they directly challenge plaintiffs' standing to maintain this declaratory judgment action in their summary judgment filings. The plaintiffs filed their motion for summary judgment. The municipal intervenors filed a response to the summary judgment motion and a cross-motion for partial summary judgment. The citizen intervenors filed a response to the summary judgment motion. The trial court proceeded to summarily dispose of the merits of the controversy argued by all the parties on summary judgment. ¶ 23 The trial court's ruling on plaintiffs' standing is not drawn by implication from mere silence. It is clear in this record that the trial court recognized plaintiffs' standing, as it had earlier determined, when it allowed the plaintiffs to be heard on the merits and when it proceeded to consider and rule upon the merits of the summary judgment filings.