Opinion ID: 2582182
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Approach Adopted by the District Court

Text: ¶ 25 As mentioned above, the crux of the parties' disagreement over the appropriateness of the district court proceeding centers on the propriety of the standard of proof invoked by the district court, as well as the manner in which the court allocated the burden of proof. Our pronouncements on the proper standard of proof and the appropriate allocation of the burden of proof in the change application context have not resulted in a clear approach and, in fact, seem to have engendered considerable confusionevidenced by the fact that all three parties to this appeal read our case law on this issue in a different manner. ¶ 26 The district court relied upon our decision in Crafts in concluding that change applicants bear an initial burden to show reason to believe that no impairment will result from the proposed change in use and that a party protesting an application must rebut that prima facie showing by a preponderance of the evidence. In Crafts, when discussing the standard of proof and the appropriate allocation of burden in the change application context, we quoted with approval our previous statement on those issues found in Salt Lake City v. Boundary Springs Water Users Ass'n, in which we stated as follows: If the evidence shows that there is reason to believe that the proposed change can be made without impairing vested rights the application should be approved. . . . A change application cannot be rejected without a showing that vested rights will thereby be substantially impaired. While the applicant has the general burden of showing that no impairment of vested rights will result from the change, the person opposing such application must fail if the evidence does not disclose that his rights will be impaired. 2 Utah 2d 141, 270 P.2d 453, 455 (1954) (footnotes omitted). Our statement in Boundary Springs remains our most definitive pronouncement on the standard of proof and allocation of burden in the change application context. ¶ 27 Although Crafts does contain language touching on those issues, that case directly considered only whether a district court's entry of summary judgment approving five change applications was appropriate. 667 P.2d at 1069. We held that summary judgment was inappropriate under the circumstances and remanded the case to the district court. See id. At the conclusion of the Crafts opinion, we provided guidance to the district court as to the appropriate course to follow after remand, stating that [t]he determinative question before the trial court will be whether there is reason to believe, on the basis of current information, that existing water rights will not be impaired by the changes proposed in the applications. Once the respondents make a prima facie showing at trial that there is reason to believe, on the basis of available data, that the changes can be lawfully approved, the appellants will have the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence either that the available data is insufficient to give rise to `reason to believe' or that available data in fact creates a reason to believe that the changes cannot be lawfully approved. Id. at 1081 (emphasis in original). While we did provide an articulation of the procedure to follow on remand in Crafts, we specifically acknowledged the limit of our holding in that case: The respondents' arguments respecting the standards for approval of change applications, the burden of proof on the `reason to believe' issue, and the authority of the State Engineer to make his approval conditional and interlocutory are all accurate. They are, however, irrelevant to the basis upon which we reverse . . . . Id. at 1080. ¶ 28 Regardless of their precedential status, our pronouncements in Boundary Springs and Crafts serve as the most detailed guidance we have supplied litigants regarding the appropriate standard of proof and proper allocation of burden in the change application context, and the district court was correct in turning to those cases in its attempt to discern the appropriate process. Unfortunately, our previous statements concerning the proper procedure to follow when considering the merits of a change application have been undeniably opaque, and reading our pronouncements on the issue in isolation can result in the imposition of an inappropriate standard of proof and an improper allocation of the burden of proof. However, when Crafts and Boundary Springs are read in concert with the Utah Code and our prior case law, the muddied water begins to clear, and the appropriate approach becomes apparent. ¶ 29 The parties to the present appeal disagree on three fundamental points relating to the appropriateness of the course followed by the district court: (1) whether the proper standard of proof governing a determination that impairment will result from application approval is preponderance of the evidence or some other standard more favorable to a change applicant, (2) whether the burden of persuasion shifts to a protestant after an applicant makes a prima facie showing that application approval will not result in impairment of vested rights, and (3) whether an applicant's prima facie showing of no impairment can be sufficiently undermined by circumstantial evidence so as to make application approval inappropriate. We address each disagreement in turn and conclude that change applicants are required to show only reason to believe that impairment will not result from application approval, that the burden of persuasion remains on change applicants throughout the application process, and that circumstantial evidence may be sufficiently compelling to make application approval inappropriate.