Court Opinion

ID: 9583104
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:34:50.735227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:14.333537
License: Public Domain

URBIGKIT, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent from the portion of the majority that affirms the February 1990 order dismissing the complaint under W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim in regard to the Weston County Weed and Pest Control Board (Weed and Pest District) by decision that insufficient notice had been given to validate that claim against the governmental entity under the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act.
This appeal presents a major complexity, albeit one that is unaddressed by either appellants or appellee. With disposition resulting from action of the trial court on a W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) dismissal motion, allegations of the complaint are assumed to be true. Fiscus v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 742 P.2d 198 (Wyo.1987). Furthermore, not only this court, but every American jurisdiction follows a unanimous rule that facts for W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6), or summary judgment, are not created by allegations contained in counsel’s motion argument. Nicholls v. Nicholls, 721 P.2d 1103 (Wyo.1986). We cannot accept contentions as determined about the operative facts because counsel for appellee included statements of what he thought had occurred within his *260argument on the motion to dismiss. This was a W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) resolution and not a summary judgment decision. Torrey v. Twiford, 713 P.2d 1160 (Wyo.1986).
The actual “facts” for review of this W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) determination are:
A. Allegation in the complaint, which is taken to be true, stating:
11. A Notice of Claim pursuant to WSA 1-39-113, was served on the COUNTY and the WCWP [Weston County Weed and Pest Board] by the plaintiffs on September 20, 1988. A copy of said claim is attached hereto and incorporated by reference herein and marked as Exhibit C.
B. The notice of claim attached to the complaint stating in part:
Pursuant to Wyoming Statutes Section 1-39-113, this claim is presented to the Weston County Commissioners, the Weston County Weed and Pest Board and all employees acting under their respective authority.
C. There is here, which was not available at least in written form for the trial court decision, what we could consider to be a concession of fact by recitation in the appellants’ brief:
A Notice of Claim directed to Appellee County and Appellee WCWP was sent by certified mail to the official Weston County address of 1 W. Main Street, Newcastle, Wyoming on September 19, 1988.
The appellants’ brief further stated facts, which in part are demonstrable in the record, regarding the response received:
The Appellants received no correspondence or acknowledgment of the claim until a letter dated October 25, 1988 was sent by David Mclnerney, Insurance Analyst from the Department of Administration and Fiscal Control — Purchasing and Property Control Division.
The letter stated the following:
“The above mentioned claim has been forwarded to our office for reply. Both of the above entities are members of the Local Self Insurance Pool. They joined the Pool in December of 1986. After review [and] discussion of the Claim with the Weed and Pest personnel, we do not feel that they were negligent in their spraying operation speaking of the time from December, 1986 to the present. We, therefore, feel that we must deny your clients claim.”
The letter was also copied and sent to Paulette Thompson, Weston County Clerk and to John Fordyce, Weston County Weed and Pest Supervisor.
The statement regarding notice given contained in the majority opinion comes from appellee’s trial court motion to dismiss which in effect made that contention like it was a proven statement of fact. However, there is absolutely nothing factually presented of any kind in this record by appellee about anything let alone what notice was received which can create factual evidence and certainly not to dispute the allegation of paragraph eleven of the complaint. Likewise, there is nothing to demonstrate whether a copy of the claim was forwarded to the Weed and Pest District by county officials so that it was then “filed” in the records of both governmental entities.1
*261SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
In the summer of 1987, Gene and Dorothy E. Cranston, ranchers in Weston County, Wyoming, first observed garden wilting problems. Test results obtained from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture revealed that herbicide field spray was contaminating their water sources. The next summer, the United States Geological Survey retested and furnished reports to the ranching family and to the field supervisor of the Weed and Pest District confirming the continued pollution. As a result, the notice of claim was submitted to the Weed and Pest District and the Weston County Commissioners in September 1988. The notice of claim was sent certified mail and apparently mailed, in accord with the cross-examination of counsel by the trial court during the hearing, to the County Courthouse, Weston County, Newcastle, Wyoming.
The notice given was followed in October 1988 with a response from a representative of the self insurance pool, a state agency, in behalf of both the county and the Weed and Pest District. Copies of the state fund response were provided to both the county and the Weed and Pest District supervisor. Suit was then filed in September 1989. There is no question, despite the status of this file creating a motion to dismiss decision, that the Weed and Pest District had general notice of the proposed claim and specific notice of the filed claim in 1988. The principal factual issue, indeterminate in this record, is whether the county actually provided the Weed and Pest District a copy of the filed document constituting the formal claim under the purview of the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act, W.S. 1-39-101 through 1-39-120, and specifically W.S. 1-39-113.2
DISCUSSION
With this background of the record, sketchy at best, and a significant issue to be resolved regarding a technical definition of “filing” whether received from one source or another, at worst, I would accept a reasonable standard for compliance with the notice requirement. The standard of reason for whatever kind or character, including some obvious example of present governmental conduct in law breaking, which I will not accept as appropriate in even contemporary society, but for here, some reasonable compliance should be, in my opinion, all that we do require. This court has faced in recent time a near blizzard of adequacy of service and appropriateness of notice proceedings, Gookin v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Ins. Co., 826 P.2d 229 (Wyo.1992) (No. 91-130, decided 2/3/92); In Interest of DG, 825 P.2d 369 (Wyo.1992), including others very recently published. Colley v. Dyer, 821 P.2d 565 (Wyo.1991); Dye v. Fremont County School District No. 24, 820 P.2d 982 (Wyo.1991).
Realism and particularism require different practical approaches and there is a time when I find reliance on technicalities, if not unnecessary, to be senseless. This is such a case and, consequently, I dissent. What *262we do here in differentiating the Weed and Pest District where it must have received the formal claim notice, since its insurance carrier was advised of the claim and then denied the same, fails to distinguish for me between the small town office address for the Weed and Pest District for notice purposes or the general address of the county commissioners at the county courthouse. I do not seek in dissent to compare the conventional insurance company notice and es-toppel or waiver concepts to this situation. Actual notice and real receipt by the Weed and Pest District and legal notice to the officers of the county at the county courthouse should suffice. One need not dispute the overt fact that the Weed and Pest District was a governmental entity to continue to reject appropriateness of the sustained motion to dismiss on the absence of notice.
One of the more reasoned yet cynical observers of the Wyoming legal scene describes the general practice of law to be a continuous walk across a mine field. Procedural default, waiver and missed deadlines become not just the deadfall of the practice, but limitations for justice to the client. Increasingly, we fail to reach substance where exploding pre-arranged booby traps in the attempted effort preclude reasoned and responsible justice to the litigants. I write forcefully in this case because obviously the Weed and Pest District had notice, had an opportunity to defend, and did defend against what may be a significant and proper legal liability for negligence in over-spray damage to the ranching family.
We do not deal here with the jurisdictional characteristics of lack of service of process to provide jurisdiction for the court system. See Gookin, 826 P.2d 229 (No. 91-130, decided 2/3/92) and Colley, 821 P.2d 565. This is a filed notice case and what we know is notice was provided and likely filed. Cf. Awe v. University of Wyoming, 534 P.2d 97 (Wyo.1975).
I do not disagree with the majority in recognizing the statutory inclusion of the Weed and Pest District within the definition of W.S. l-39-103(a)(i) and (ii) (Supp. 1991). What I do say is that the subservient entity, the Weed and Pest District, may and probably did receive notice when it was sent to the county and particularly if actually received by the Weed and Pest District thereafter. In Duran v. Board of County Com’rs of Sweetwater County, 787 P.2d 971 (Wyo.1990) and Dee v. Laramie County, 666 P.2d 957 (Wyo.1983), no formal notice was given, which is different from this case where notice was explicitly given, to leave only the question of how it was mailed, whether actual notice was received and whether a copy was on file in the records of the involved governmental entity.
The actual notice establishes for purposes of this dissent what initially occurred in communicative effort and the sole basis for approving the result thereafter is that mailing to an address, either Post Office Box 411 or 25 Fairgrounds Road, was required instead of the Weston County Courthouse, 1 West Main, Newcastle, Wyoming 82701.3 In technical application, it is obvious that the statute, W.S. l-39-113(c) (Supp.1991), requires “fil[ing] at the business office of [the] entity,” but does not specifically state how presentation must be made for that filing to occur. The answer is obvious. In order to file, they have to get it and, in this case, there is nothing to suggest that the Weed and Pest District did not receive it and did not have it on file. Any conclusion by appellee that lack of mailing to some address different than the county courthouse is sufficient alone to resolve the question of filing does not, for me, reach any relevance in statutory application.
Obviously, one of the difficulties with all of this is a record which fails to provide evidence of what did occur and in no way suggests that the Weed and Pest District did not receive a copy of the claim or specifically how they did, if it occurred. *263There is no question in this incongruent record about the Weed and Pest District receiving notice of the claim prior to the date suit was filed, September 19, 1989, by virtue of the recognition and response afforded by the state sponsored self insurance pool letter, which stated:
Department of Administration and Fiscal Control
Purchasing and Property Control Division
October 25, 1988
Debra J. Hein, Attorney at Law
P.O. Box 884
Newcastle, WY 82701
Re: Claim of Gene and Dorothy E. Cranston vs. Weston County and Weston County Weed & Pest
Dear Ms. Hein:
The above mentioned claim has been forwarded to our office for reply. Both of the above entities are members of the Local Government Self Insurance Pool. They both joined the Pool i[n] December, 1986. After review and discussion of the claim with the Weed and Pest personnel, we do not feel that they were negligent in their spraying operation speaking of the time from December, 1986 to the present. We, therefore, feel that we must deny your client’s claim.
Sincerely,
/s/
David Mclnerney
Insurance Analyst
xc: Paulette Thompson, Weston County Clerk
1 West Main
Newcastle, WY 82701
xc: John Fordyce, Weston County Weed and Pest Supervisor
P.O. Box 411
Newcastle, WY 82701
John Fordyce, as an agent of the Weed and Pest District, had earlier received notice of the controversy and notice of the contamination of the United States Geological Survey by letters dated August 10,1988 and September 8, 1988. The notice of violation of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality was furnished by mail on or about February 20, 1989 to Weston County, Box 411, which, from this record, is apparently the mailing address for John Fordyce as the Weed and Pest District supervisor.4
What we are essentially presented is an acknowledgement of receipt of the claim by a state agency in behalf of the local entity of government including liability denial. Does that suffice for compliance where unfortunately we are not advised what is contained in the file of the Weed and Pest District at its separate Weston County office not located in the county courthouse building? At a minimum, I would suggest that within this record, if the county furnished the Weed and Pest District a copy of the notice which was then filed in the Weed and Pest District records, subterfuge is being perpetrated as an unjustified tactic of hardball litigation. Furthermore, on this record, failure of receipt of the mailed notice should be a burden for appellee to prove.
This case has to be recognized for what is presented. A timely claim in proper form was made and actual notice of that claim was received by the governmental entity. The defense is that the notice was mailed to the wrong address and not that existence of the actual claim was neither known nor received. I find sufficient substantial compliance here to sustain appellants’ proceeding and to reverse the action of the trial court. We should differentiate here notice of a claim, not notice of events from which a claim can be made which is an entirely different and more attenuated subject. I find substantial compliance by preparation and submission of a proper claim, albeit to a less than satisfactory address, supported within the documentary evidence that the submission of the claim was known by the responsible governmental entity. Consequently, Duran, 787 P.2d *264971 and Awe, 534 P.2d 97 are not directly relevant nor dispositive.
I address this dissent for citation of legal authority in two directions. First, actual notice had been received and a proper claim was submitted within the criteria of well reasoned case law regarding sufficiency of reasonable compliance. Second, if issues of what notice was received and whether the actual claim was filed in the office of the Weed and Pest District are considered to be dispositive and remain in controversy, then remand should be made to clarify the record before assumptions are adopted to foreclose decision on the actual facts regarding what, if anything, county officers did to provide information, notice or the written document to the Weed and Pest District officialdom.
The case of Indiana State Highway Com’n v. Morris, 528 N.E.2d 468 (Ind.1988) illuminates my resolution of the first issue that actual notice of the filed claim was sufficient. Similarly to this case, the notice was mailed only to the Highway Commission in Indiana. In accord with established policy, the Highway Commission furnished a copy to the Attorney General. The statutory notice provision required formal notice by the claimant to both the Highway Commission and the Attorney General. The contention for dismissal in Morris was that notice was not received by the Attorney General directly from the plaintiff. The language of the opinion is informative and should be dispositive here:
The language of the statute, literally applied, simply requires that the tort claim notice be “filed” with the Attorney General and the state agency. It does not designate who must file the notice.
* * * * * *
* * * In the present case, these objectives are satisfied because the Commission and the Attorney General each received timely notice fully advising them that the plaintiffs were making a claim.
* * # * * *
* * * In the present case, both the Commission and the Attorney General not only received full and timely information regarding the occurrence, but they each received formal notification of plaintiffs’ intentions to assert a claim. This constituted more than mere actual knowledge. It satisfied the statutory objectives and achieved substantial, if not actual, compliance.
Id. at 470-71 (emphasis in original).
Another case from the same jurisdiction is also informative. In Scott v. Gatson, 492 N.E.2d 337 (Ind.App.1986), claimant’s counsel sent a demand letter to the public bus company in behalf of an injured automobile driver who was involved in a rear-end collision. The letter sent regular mail was answered by acknowledgement by a private insurance carrier adjusting service. Contest by the bus company and its insurance carrier to the appropriateness of service of notice was anchored in argument about the failure of delivery in person or by registered or certified mail. The Indiana court stated:
“[T]o hold that the notice was defective because of its mode of delivery when the notice was received and the purpose of either hand delivery or registered or certified mail, that of assurance of receipt, was met, is contrary to logic and defies common sense.”
Id. at 341 (quoting Burggrabe v. Board of Public Works of City of Evansville, 469 N.E.2d 1233, 1236 (Ind.App.1984)). That court recognized its prior law:
“[W]e see no need to endorse a policy which renders the statute a trap for the unwary where such purpose has in fact been satisfied.” Galbreath v. City of Indianapolis (1970) 253 Ind. 472, 255 N.E.2d 225, 229. (Emphasis in the original).
Scott, 492 N.E.2d at 340.
Substantial compliance was found from the receipt of the written notice by the governmental entity in proper time and the purpose of notice had been consequently satisfied. “ ‘When the purposes of the statute are fully satisfied, it is clear that the result is substantial compliance with the statute.’ ” Id. (quoting Delaware *265County v. Powell, 272 Ind. 82, 393 N.E.2d 190, 192 (1979)).
Actual notice, lack of prejudice from character of notice provided and instigation of negotiation sufficed in Duesterhaus v. City of Edmond, 634 P.2d 720, 723 (Okl.1981) (footnote omitted):
The purposes of the notice provisions of the Act are to further legitimate municipal interests by promoting prompt investigation; providing the opportunity to repair any dangerous condition and for speedy and amicable settlement of meritorious claims; and to prepare to meet possible fiscal liabilities.
Two of the purposes of the notice provisions of the Act are to afford the City the opportunity to promptly investigate and quickly settle meritorious claims. We fail to see how the City could have suffered any prejudice when the [city attorney] was actually engaged in settlement negotiations, and the claim was under investigation. Although notice to the [city attorney] is an unauthorized procedure outside the purview of the Act, in this instance we find that the notice was sufficient to constitute substantial compliance.
See also Diemert v. City of Mobile, 474 So.2d 663 (Ala.1985) and Reirdon v. Wilburton Bd. of Ed., 611 P.2d 239 (Okl.1980). Cf. Johnson v. City of Memphis, 699 S.W.2d 179 (Tenn.App.1985). We should not ignore the fact that we deal here with a notice statute and not a service of process requirement. Cf. Gookin, 826 P.2d 229.
CONCLUSION
In reality, if any decision is to be based only on the documents presented by appellants, the motion of appellee to dismiss, the concession such as it may be by appellants’ counsel at the W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) hearing or finally in the statement in appellate brief regarding notice received by the Weed and Pest District, justice and criteria of the rule itself would require reversal of the dismissal as a half-stage summary judgment decision. Opportunity should be provided to the injured landowner to document the record for a proper decision. Torrey, 713 P.2d 1160.
It can be contended, obviously, that appellants should have been more adequately prepared with documentation at the hearing held by the trial court. It was, however, a W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) session without any notice to counsel of a different course for a proposed decision such as summary judgment. No factual information obtained at the hearing should be utilized for decision as the non-movant was not afforded a proper opportunity to develop all of the facts. Kimbley v. City of Green River, 642 P.2d 443 (Wyo.1982).
What this majority should be called to determine is simply whether the “filing” requirement is met by receipt of the claim form for filing of the record by the governmental entity or whether filing is only met if claimant or the mailman walks the last mile so that delivery does not occur by act of a third party or defendant’s affiliate agency. Tested on this basis, the decision of the majority is not supported by the available case law. Duesterhaus, 634 P.2d 720. At the very least, a remand is required to develop the facts for proper decision. This requirement has strong case law support in similar circumstances where the appellate court remanded. Board of Aviation Com’rs of St. Joseph County v. Hestor, 473 N.E.2d 151 (Ind.App.1985). See also Emery v. University of New Mexico Medical Center, 96 N.M. 144, 628 P.2d 1140 (1981) and Cohen v. Pearl River Union Free School Dist., 81 A.D.2d 876, 439 N.Y.S.2d 393 (1981).
In another case, the Indiana court appropriately stated the standard that I would follow:
Just as the notice statute should not become a trap for the unwary * * * neither should it become a refuge for the uncon-scientious.
Collier v. Prater, 544 N.E.2d 497, 500 (Ind.1989).
I do not find counsel for appellants to have been unconscientious here and I would consequently reverse and remand in *266the interest of justice and a proper adjudication of the substantive issues of liability.

. If counsel for appellee had been sworn and then testified, one would have cause to expect from what little documentation is provided that appellants probably did mail the jointly addressed notice to the County Courthouse, Weston County, Newcastle, Wyoming. (Actually, that is what counsel for appellants told the trial judge when he asked her at the W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) motion hearing what had been done.) Applying a reasoned degree of almost certain probability, one would believe that the county officials made a copy of the notice and forwarded it to the Weed and Pest District or to its supervisor, John Fordyce. It is also determinable from this record that either one or both of the county and the Weed and Pest District then sent notice of the claim to the local governmental self insurance pool in Cheyenne, Wyoming and that the response to the claim by the self insurance pool addressed to appellants was furnished to both the county clerk of Weston County and to John Fordyce.
There is another technical circumstance about this record in that all of the documentation found was not filed with the original complaint. Insurance policy information and the letter from the self insurance pool to appellants with copies to the county and Weed and Pest District *261were filed in January 1990 without any accompanying affidavit or designation of the particular basis for filing. These documents were filed with the trial court approximately a month before the order dismissing the complaint was entered so that apparently the material was considered by the trial court for the February 22, 1990 W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) dismissal order. The trial court stated in the referenced order:
THE COURT FURTHER FINDS that only one copy of a Notice of Claim was served by certified mail upon the County Commissioners addressed to:
Weston County Commissioners Weston County Courthouse Newcastle, Wyoming
There is absolutely no source for factually making that finding, except by acceptance of an allegation contained in the motion to dismiss which had been previously filed on October 10, 1989 and counsel’s response to the question asked at the trial court’s W.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) hearing. Actually, supplementation of the complaint by subsequent facts renders the proceeding inappropriate for decision as a motion to dismiss. Torrey, 713 P.2d 1160.

. It is unfortunate that at the hearing, while the trial court was examining counsel for appellants regarding the mailing of the notice, that a similar examination was not made of counsel for appellee to establish for the motion to dismiss decision then underway what notice was actually received by the Weed and Pest District, by what documents, from whom and when.

. Of course on this record, we do not know whether Post Office Box 411 is different from the address for mail to the county offices and we do not know whether there is actual mail delivery to the listed location, 25 Fairgrounds Road, Newcastle, Wyoming.

. Why the deposition of John Fordyce was not taken to determine receipt of the claim or other notice is undisclosed by this record.