Opinion ID: 4535343
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: ¶1 Salt Lake, Duchesne, Uintah, Washington, and Weber Counties (Counties) filed a lawsuit against the State of Utah, challenging several provisions of the Utah Tax Code as unconstitutional (Challenged laws).1 The district court dismissed two of the Counties’ claims as unripe because the allegations in their complaint did not show they had been adversely affected by the tax code provision at issue. The court then dismissed the Counties’ remaining claims for a failure to exhaust administrative remedies because the Counties had not first filed an appeal of a tax assessment with the Utah State Tax Commission. Because none of the Counties’ claims presents a justiciable controversy, we affirm the district court’s decision. ¶2 The district court properly dismissed the Counties’ claims on ripeness grounds. Under our ripeness doctrine, courts should resolve legal issues only where the resulting legal rule can be applied to a specific set of facts, thereby resolving a specific controversy. Although the Counties cite evidence outside their pleadings to suggest that the tax code provision at issue had already adversely affected them, they have not incorporated this evidence into their complaint. So their complaint is facially insufficient to show that the dismissed claims were ripe. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of the two claims dismissed on ripeness grounds. ¶3 Further, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of the Counties’ remaining claims because those claims are best viewed as requests for an advisory opinion—something we do not provide. According to the Counties, their claims “do not arise from a specific tax assessment challenged, unchallenged, or forgone.” And they do not “depend upon averments of particular assessments to maintain this action.” Instead, their claims “are structurally based and stem from the Challenged laws’ enactment and unconstitutional __________________________________________________________ 1 Delta Air Lines, Inc. and SkyWest Airlines, Inc. (Airlines) intervened as defendants in the district court. 2 Cite as: 2020 UT 27 Opinion of the Court assessment[-]mandated methodology.” In other words, the Counties’ purpose in turning to the judiciary in this case is to obtain a judicial declaration that the Challenged laws are unconstitutional in the abstract. Because we have “no power to decide abstract questions or to render declaratory judgments[] in the absence of an actual controversy directly involving rights,”2 we affirm the district court’s dismissal of the Counties’ remaining claims.