Court Opinion

ID: 9408028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-07-11 14:11:00.99364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:41.334191
License: Public Domain

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
UNPUBLISHED

              Present: Judges Athey, Fulton and Causey

              JAMES MEDEIROS, MAURICIO TOVAR,
               BLUE WING LLC AND ROBERT PIERCE
                                                                               MEMORANDUM OPINION*
              v.     Record No. 1463-22-2                                          PER CURIAM
                                                                                   JULY 11, 2023
              VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF
               WILDLIFE RESOURCES

                                   FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF HENRICO COUNTY
                                                John Marshall, Judge

                              (Daniel Woislaw; Damien M. Schiff; Pacific Legal Foundation, on
                              briefs), for appellants.

                              (Jason S. Miyares, Attorney General; Charles H. Slemp, III, Chief
                              Deputy Attorney General; Steven G. Popps, Deputy Attorney
                              General; Andrew N. Ferguson, Solicitor General; Erika L. Maley,
                              Principal Deputy Solicitor General; Graham K. Bryant, Deputy
                              Solicitor General; M. Jordan Minot, Assistant Solicitor General;
                              Kelci A. M. Block, Assistant Attorney General, on brief), for
                              appellee.

                              Amicus Curiae: Virginia Property Rights Alliance (Stephen C.
                              Piepgrass; Ryan J. Strasser; James K. Trefil; Timothy L. McHugh;
                              William H. Smith, III; Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP,
                              on brief), for appellants.

                     James Medeiros, Mauricio Tovar, Blue Wing LLC, and Robert Pierce (“landowners”)

              appeal the trial court’s dismissal of their declaratory judgment action and their associated inverse

              condemnation claim for compensation against the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources

              (“VDWR”). The trial court sustained the demurrer after considering arguments raised in the

              briefs and at the hearing on the demurrer. The record does not include a transcript or a written

                     *
                         This opinion is not designated for publication. See Code § 17.1-413(A).
statement of facts of the demurrer hearing. Without a record of the arguments on which the trial

court relied in reaching its decision, we cannot engage in a meaningful review of its ruling.

Accordingly, the landowners’ arguments are waived and the trial court’s judgment is affirmed.

After examining the briefs and record in this case, the panel unanimously holds that oral

argument is unnecessary because “the appeal is wholly without merit.” Code § 17.1-403(ii)(a);

Rule 5A:27(a).

                                           BACKGROUND

        The landowners brought a declaratory judgment action against the VDWR asserting that

Code § 18.2-136, “the Right to Retrieve Law,” constituted a taking of their “private property

without just compensation within the meaning of Article I, § 11 of the Virginia Constitution and the

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” They argued further that the taking constituted

inverse condemnation for which they were entitled to receive compensation; therefore, they asked

the trial court to impanel a jury under Code § 8.01-187 to determine “just compensation.”

        VDWR demurred. In its pleading, VDWR asserted that the landowners had “failed to

state a claim upon which relief c[ould] be granted because they ha[d] pled no facts that

show[ed] . . . [VDWR] made an affirmative action to take their property nor that any legitimate

property right ha[d] actually been disturbed.” It argued that the law did not support the

landowners’ claim that “Code § 18.2-136 acts in any way other than as an exception to criminal

prosecution.” Further, VDWR maintained that the landowners had failed to plead sufficient facts

to establish that VDWR “took any action to take their property for the public benefit and . . .

ha[d] not stated an actual property right that [w]as . . . violated by [VDWR]’s actions.”

        Following a hearing on August 19, 2022, the trial court sustained the demurrer. In its

final order, the trial court stated that it had reached its decision after “consider[ing] the

arguments made at the hearing and in the briefs submitted.” First, the trial court ruled that “Code

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§ 18.2-136 only creates an exception to criminal trespass and does not modify common law

trespass.” Second, without elaboration, it ruled that “plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon

which relief can be granted.”

        The landowners appeal, arguing that Code § 18.2-136 unambiguously grants hunters an

“easement-like right” to “go upon prohibited lands to retrieve their dogs.” They contend that the

statute’s inclusion in Title 18.2 does not mean the statute merely exempts trespassing hunters from

criminal prosecution. Rather, it effects a per se physical taking of property and therefore entitles the

landowners to “just compensation” under the Virginia and United States Constitutions.

                                             ANALYSIS

        “On appeal, we presume the judgment of the trial court is correct.” Bay v. Commonwealth,

60 Va. App. 520, 528 (2012). “The burden is upon the appellant to provide [the appellate court]

with a record which substantiates the claim of error. In the absence [of a sufficient record], we will

not consider the point.” Dixon v. Dixon, 71 Va. App. 709, 716 (2020) (alterations in original)

(quoting Robinson v. Robinson, 50 Va. App. 189, 197 (2007)). A transcript of any proceeding or a

written statement of facts becomes part of the record if filed in the trial court clerk’s office

within 60 days after entry of final judgment. Rule 5A:8(a) and (c). “When the appellant fails to

ensure that the record contains transcripts or a written statement of facts necessary to permit

resolution of appellate issues, any assignments of error affected by such omission shall not be

considered.” Rule 5A:8(b)(4)(ii); see also Smith v. Commonwealth, 32 Va. App. 766, 771 (2000)

(holding that “[t]his Court has no authority to make exceptions to the filing requirements” for

transcripts “set out in the Rules” (quoting Turner v. Commonwealth, 2 Va. App. 96, 99 (1986))).

        The record on appeal does not include a transcript or a written statement of facts from the

August 19, 2022 hearing on VDWR’s demurrer. The final order sustaining the demurrer expressly

states that the trial court made its decision on two grounds after it “considered the arguments made

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at the hearing and in the briefs submitted.” (Emphasis added). We conclude that a transcript or a

written statement of facts from that hearing is indispensable to a determination of the landowners’

assignment of error. See Anderson v. Commonwealth, 13 Va. App. 506, 509 (1992) (“In the

absence of a statement of facts, we have no basis upon which to determine whether [appellant] was

lawfully arrested.”).

        Without a record of the hearing, we cannot ascertain whether the assignment of error

encompasses both grounds for the trial court’s decision. The assignment of error asserts that the

trial court “erred in sustaining [the] demurrer . . . on the ground that the Right to Retrieve Law

merely exempts trespassing hunters from criminal prosecution.” But the trial court’s order suggests

that its decision did not rest solely on this ruling. In addition to ruling that “Code § 18.2-136 only

creates an exception to criminal trespass,” the trial court’s order further reflects that it also ruled that

the landowners “failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Without a transcript or a

written statement of facts of the hearing, we cannot discern whether the second ruling flows from

the first, or whether the two rulings constitute independent bases for the trial court’s decision.

        “It is well-settled that a party who challenges the ruling of a lower court must on appeal

assign error to each articulated basis for that ruling.” Manchester Oaks Homeowners Ass’n, Inc. v.

Batt, 284 Va. 409, 421 (2012). “Just as ‘[w]e cannot review the ruling of a lower court for error

when the appellant does not bring within the record on appeal the [evidentiary] basis for that ruling,’

we cannot review it when the appellant does not assign error to every legal basis given for it.” Id. at

422 (alterations in original) (quoting Prince Seating Corp. v. Rabideau, 275 Va. 468, 470 (2008)).

“[O]therwise, ‘an appellant could avoid the adverse effect of a separate and independent basis for

the judgment by ignoring it and leaving it unchallenged.’” Id. (alteration in original) (quoting

Johnson v. Commonwealth, 45 Va. App. 113, 116-17 (2005)). Nothing in the record demonstrates

the arguments made during the hearing on VDWR’s demurrer, nor the trial court’s rationale

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underlying the two, freestanding bases upon which it granted the demurrer. Accordingly, without

such a transcript or a written statement of facts, we cannot determine whether the landowners’

single assignment of error properly challenges every legal basis for the underlying judgment.

        In addition, with no record of the arguments the landowners made or the positions they took

(or possibly abandoned) at the demurrer hearing, we cannot know if their appellate argument

repudiates a position that they may have taken in the trial court, let alone whether the trial court

ruled, and erred, as they claim. See Rule 5A:18 (providing that an appellate court will only consider

arguments that were timely raised in the trial court); Nelson v. Commonwealth, 71 Va. App. 397,

403 (2020) (recognizing that a party may not take inconsistent or contradictory positions during the

course of litigation). Thus, the transcript, or a written statement of facts in lieu of a transcript, from

the demurrer hearing is indispensable to a determination of the landowners’ argument on appeal.

Rule 5A:8(b)(4)(ii). Therefore, we cannot consider their argument and affirm the trial court’s

judgment. See Browning v. Browning, 68 Va. App. 19, 30 (2017) (holding that a Rule 5A:8 error

requires affirmance rather than dismissal because it is non-jurisdictional).

                                            CONCLUSION

        The landowners’ failure to file a transcript or a written statement of facts reflecting the

arguments raised at the demurrer hearing and the trial court’s rationale for its rulings prevents us

from reviewing the trial court’s decision and the assignment of error. Accordingly, we affirm the

trial court’s judgment.

                                                                                                 Affirmed.

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