Opinion ID: 2628312
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: standard of review

Text: The ultimate question before this court on petition for review is whether the appellants had standing to challenge the KDHE's issuance of a permit for the construction and operation of a landfill in Harper County. Standing is a jurisdictional question whereby courts determine whether the plaintiff has alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of a controversy as to warrant invocation of jurisdiction and to justify exercise of the court's remedial powers on his or her behalf. Moorhouse v. City of Wichita, 259 Kan. 570, 574, 913 P.2d 172 (1996). A party must have a sufficient stake in the outcome of an otherwise justiciable controversy in order to obtain judicial resolution of that controversy. Harrison, 241 Kan. at 176, 734 P.2d 1155. Because standing implicates the court's jurisdiction to hear a case, the existence of standing is a question of law over which this court's scope of review is unlimited. 312 Education Ass'n, 273 Kan. at 882, 47 P.3d 383. Additionally, we must bear in mind that this case comes before us after the district court granted Waste Connections' motion to dismiss. The district court's ruling was made before commencement of discovery. Under these circumstances, we accept the facts alleged in the petition as true, along with any inferences that can be reasonably drawn therefrom. If those facts and inferences demonstrate that the appellants have standing to sue, the decision of the district court must be reversed. See McCormick v. Board of Shawnee County Comm'rs, 272 Kan. 627, 634, 35 P.3d 815 (2001), cert. denied 537 U.S. 841, 123 S.Ct. 170, 154 L.Ed.2d 65 (2002).