Opinion ID: 2569671
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Civil Damage Claims

Text: The initial pleading filed by Highlands in the district court is entitled Notice of Appeal, and Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial. The document indicates a fee category of R.2 with a filing fee of $72. Highlands primarily seeks judicial review and reversal of the City's zoning decision but also seeks monetary damages for an alleged violation of its equal protection rights (Count One) and for alleged violation of its due process rights (Count Two). There seems to be an increasing tendency, particularly in land use cases, for counsel to combine civil damage claims with their administrative appeal. This Court has yet to directly rule on the propriety of this practice. I do have concerns about whether a claim for civil damages against a governmental entity may be combined with an administrative appeal of that entity's decision and whether, if a combined filing is permissible, only one filing fee category is payable. Until the Court does directly address these issues, better practice may dictate separate filings and separate fees. See, e.g., Cobbley v. City of Challis, 143 Idaho 130, 139 P.3d 732 (2006) where the court disapproved of a single filing in a somewhat related situation. However, since the Court has not directly ruled on the situation presented here, it would seem that Highlands is entitled to a merits consideration of its civil damage claims. The civil damage claims are not reviewed under IDAPA. LLUPA does address the issue of judicial review of certain taking actions but the provision is somewhat convoluted and narrowly tailored and may or may not apply in these circumstances. I.C. § 67-6521(2)(b). However, the Court's jurisdiction is not constrained by IDAPA or LLUPA. This Court has often reviewed cases where landowners seek declaratory, injunctive, or takings remedies in zoning matters, separate and apart from relief under LLUPA and IDAPA. For example, in McCuskey v. Canyon County Comm'rs., 128 Idaho 213, 912 P.2d 100 (1996), we considered a case where a property owner sought compensation for an alleged taking of property by virtue of a zoning ordinance. In City of Lewiston v. Knieriem, 107 Idaho 80, 685 P.2d 821 (1984), we entertained a case where a property owner sought injunctive relief for violation of his due process and equal protection rights by virtue of a zoning ordinance. In that case the Court stated: Local legislative bodies are authorized to enact zoning ordinances restricting use of property within the corporate limits. The zoning power is not unlimited; the power to zone derives from the police power of the state, and zoning ordinances must therefore bear a reasonable relation to goals properly pursued by the state through its police power. A strong presumption exists in favor of the validity of local zoning ordinances. The burden of proving that the ordinance is invalid rests upon the party challenging its validity and the presumption in favor of validity can be overcome only by a clear showing that the ordinance as applied is confiscatory, arbitrary, unreasonable, and capricious. Where there is a basis for a reasonable difference of opinion, or if the validity of legislative classification for zoning purposes is debatable, a court may not substitute its judgment for that of the local zoning authority. Id. at 83, 685 P.2d at 824 (internal citation omitted). While Highlands has asserted claims that should be considered, the record provides little support for the merits of those claims. The district court apparently dismissed the civil damage claims on the ground that Highlands had failed to pursue its administrative remedies and thus was unable to show any damage. However, the dismissal is more correctly grounded on the fact that the City acted within the law, as discussed in the previous section. Highlands failed to show that its equal protection or due process rights were violated and, therefore, the dismissal of those claims was appropriate, albeit on different grounds.