Opinion ID: 1239050
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Municipal entitlements

Text: The superior court evaluated the litigation risk associated with recovery of original trust lands selected by municipalities under the municipality entitlement program, AS 29.65, as medium. It based this conclusion partly on its evaluation of the argument that the transfers would be upheld under University of Alaska and partly on the fact that many of the lands have been resold to individuals who may be bona fide purchasers. Weiss argues that this finding is contradicted by City of Sierra Vista v. Babbitt, 129 Ariz. 524, 633 P.2d 333, 334 (1981), in which a sale of school trust land to a municipality was invalidated. [17] In contrast to the case before us, however, City of Sierra Vista relies on the specific requirement in the Arizona Enabling Act that school trust lands be sold to the highest and best bidder. Id. Therefore, Weiss's reliance on this case is misplaced. Weiss also argues that the superior court erred by including sales by municipalities to third-party purchasers in this category because those sales had already been considered by the court in its specific discussion of sales to third-party purchasers. However, the superior court's finding that the plaintiffs face a medium risk of recovering municipal entitlement lands through continued litigation is amply supported by University of Alaska regardless of whether such lands were resold to third parties.