Opinion ID: 2639108
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Claims Barred by Operation of Statute

Text: [¶ 38] The state and the United States contend the reservoir permits were fully adjudicated in 1963 and the applicable statutes bar the Stutzmans' late filed claims. The statutes provide for the opportunity for any person ... claiming any interest in the water being adjudicated to contest the adjudication. Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 41-4-312 and 41-4-511 (LexisNexis 2003). The Board of Control's order on the reservoir certificates noted the absence of any challenge to the adjudication. The statutes also provide the Board of Control's order can be appealed to the district court in conformity with the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Rules of Appellate Procedure. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 41-4-517 (LexisNexis 2003). Wyoming Rule of Appellate Procedure 12.04(a) requires any appeal of an administrative action must be filed within thirty days. Department of Revenue and Taxation v. Irvine, 589 P.2d 1295 (Wyo.1979); Sheridan Retirement Partners v. City of Sheridan, 950 P.2d 554 (Wyo.1997). Neither the Stutzmans nor their predecessors in interest appealed the Board of Control's order as provided in W.R.A.P. 12.04. [¶ 39] The Stutzmans contend their interests were not adverse to the BOR's concerning the adjudication of the certificates and they had no reason to challenge the same. They claim the only issues decided by those proceedings related to the construction of the reservoir. Their position, however, does not comport with their assertion that they have always had an implied secondary right with the same priority date as the reservoir permits, 1904 and 1905, and they, not the BOR, have always had the right to control their proportionate share of the stored water. The Stutzmans and their predecessors in interest are charged with knowledge of the statutes in effect at the time the reservoir certificates were adjudicated. Those statutes provided a secondary permit would not be granted unless the applicant demonstrated an agreement existed with the reservoir owner to impound the necessary water. Section 41-3-302. Both historically, and at all times relevant to the Stutzmans' claims, the statutes contemplated reservoir owners would control how the water was used, subject, of course, to the rights of senior appropriators and the overarching requirement of beneficial use. See § 41-3-101. [6] Consequently, if a water user was not also a reservoir owner, a natural adversity of interest existed between the user and the reservoir owner. Given the Stutzmans' claim that they are entitled to demand their pro rata share of the water stored in the Buffalo Bill Reservoir irrespective of the BOR's other commitments and desires, that adversity of interest existed in 1963 the same as it does today. [¶ 40] Condict evidences that same adversity of interest between the reservoir owner and the water user. The statute then in effect is similar in one important aspect to the statutes applicable to Permits 482R and 751R in that for the secondary permit to issue, the applicant had to demonstrate documentary evidence that he had entered into an agreement with the owners of the reservoir for a permanent and sufficient interest in said reservoir to impound enough water for the purposes set forth in said application. Condict, 333 P.2d at 687, citing Ch. 59 W.C.S.1910, § 744. Of particular note, Condict raised his claim of right to the stored water by contesting the issuance of the certificate of construction to Ryan for all of the rights to the reservoir. Had he not done so, query whether he could have still objected, and claimed a latent implied secondary right years later after the reservoir certificate was administratively adjudicated. Not even in Condict can we find an inference that a claim adverse to the reservoir owner's permitted rights can be raised after the reservoir permit has been fully and unconditionally adjudicated. [¶ 41] In adopting the statutory scheme for the administration of state water rights, we believe the legislature intended fully adjudicated certificates to be final and complete statements of the holder's rights, subject only to later claims of abandonment. In fact, the entire system is built upon reliance by all affected persons on final, adjudicated rights. Consequently, we hold the failure to challenge such a certificate, if one claims rights superior to those of the certificate holder, constitutes a bar to such claims. [¶ 42] We note the Stutzmans also claim the original reservoir permits were conditioned upon use of the water solely for irrigation of particular lands and that condition carried over into the certificates as issued. [7] However, the certificates, which represented the final state action with regard to the control of the water stored in Buffalo Bill Reservoir, simply provide that the right to store the water is limited only by the capacity of the reservoir and to the broadened purposes of irrigation, power, domestic municipal, industrial, recreation/fish and wildlife. Even if the Stutzmans are correct that the original permits were conditioned upon the stored water being used only for irrigation on certain lands, the state engineer and the Board of Control expanded those allowed uses in the final certificates, and that expansion went unchallenged. [¶ 43] Even if the statutes which establish the procedural requirements for adjudication of water rights bar the Stutzmans' claims under ordinary circumstances, they argue those statutes are superceded by the general adjudication statute which is more recent and specific and provides an alternative means to obtain judicial recognition and adjudication of their interest in the stored water. The Stutzmans suggest that the general adjudication statute should be read to expand the court's jurisdiction and allow their late filed claims because the statute directs the court to determine the extent and priority date of and adjudicate any interest in or right to use the water of the river system and all other sources not otherwise represented by the aforedescribed decrees, certificates, or permits. Section 1-37-106(a)(i)(A)(IV). The state and the United States contend 1) that provision was intended to cover Indian reserved rights and not interests such as those claimed by the Stutzmans which are derived, under their theory, from the reservoir permits in question, and 2) the statute only allows the court to confirm previously adjudicated rights, which infers the court does not have jurisdiction to further adjudicate those rights as it does with regard to uncancelled permits. [8] Section 1-37-106(a)(i)(A)(III). We conclude that only the interpretation urged by the state and the United States gives effect to all of the provisions of the general adjudication statute as required by the rules of statutory construction. Wyodak Resources Development Corp. v. Wyoming Dept. of Revenue, 2002 WY 181, 60 P.3d 129 (Wyo.2002). To adopt the Stutzmans' view would require an overly broad reading of one provision that would necessitate ignoring the import of another. The statute read as a whole clearly contemplates that certificates are final and not subject to challenge, except, of course, in a petition for abandonment which is necessarily premised upon action or inaction occurring after adjudication and can result in the loss of a right. [¶ 44] To preserve their argument that they had implied secondary rights which derived from the reservoir permit and allowed them, rather than the reservoir owners, to control the use of a pro rata share of the stored water, the Stutzmans were required to challenge the issuance of the unconditional certificate to BOR. They failed to do so, and their claim was barred by operation of statute.