Court Opinion

ID: 9546748
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:34:55.163912+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:49.648401
License: Public Domain

EUBANK, Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent.
The record shows that the landowner, Bennett, executed an agreement with the petitioner on June 2, 1988, to build a full service car wash on its property and then to lease the car wash to the petitioner for a 40-year term, with an option to purchase. In the agreement, Bennett warranted to defend the title to the leased premises, and covenanted to obtain a temporary or permanent certificate of occupancy of the leased premises for a car wash from the City of Prescott. In the event Bennett is unsuccessful, petitioner has the right to terminate the agreement. The agreement also provides that the lease does not commence to run prior to the completion of the building and the procurement of the necessary permits from the City. Thus if there is no permit, there is no lease.
*110These are express conditions precedent and the obligation to perform is on Bennett not on the petitioner. Thus, from my view, Bennett is the real party in interest under the agreement at the point in time when this issue was before the trial judge. Under this agreement Rule 24(b), Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure (permissive intervention) would apply, and in my opinion the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the intervention of the petitioner under this agreement.
I also disagree on the timeliness issue. The agreement was signed on June 2, 1988; Bennett applied for the permit on June 22; it was denied, and on June 28, Bennett took an appeal to the City Board of Adjustments. While pending a hearing, Bennett revised its original plan from a full service car wash to a coin operated car wash, and on July 15, the City approved this permit. On July 20 Ponderosa, a neighboring car wash, appealed the permit to the Board of Adjustments and brought a special action in the superior court regarding the revised plan. On July 21, 1988, the Board of Adjustments rejected Bennett’s original application and affirméd the original denial of the permit. On July 29, 1988, the trial court, in the special action, enjoined Bennett and the City. Petitioner moved to intervene on August 19, 1988, eleven days before the hearing on the injunction. The hearing on the motion was held on August 24, 1988, six days before the hearing, and was denied by the court the next day. Winner petitioned this court for special action relief, based on the denial of intervention, and a stay of proceedings, which we denied on August 30, 1988. The following day the trial court made the temporary injunction permanent. The record, such as we have, indicates petitioner testified at the preliminary injunction hearing on July 26, 1988, and that his attorneys were present as observers. However, petitioner waited until August 19, 1988, eleven days before the hearing, to move to intervene. Based on these circumstances, I cannot find that the trial judge abused his discretion in denying intervention as untimely. Rule 24(b), Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure.