Court Opinion

ID: 9594715
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:32:15.117311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:20.269607
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
dissenting:
After reargument in this matter, I am of the opinion that the trial court was correct in ruling in effect that any equitable estoppel which might have occurred from the defendant’s conduct was dissipated no later than December, 1981, and therefore the two-year statute of limitations had run before the plaintiff’s action was filed on May 8, 1984. That dissipation of any equitable estoppel is based upon the fact that in August of 1980 Blakley, who was then the county engineer and surveyor, notified the plaintiff that the GP Engineering survey was incorrect. A year after that, the plaintiff hired his own surveyor, Richard Johnson, who resurveyed the property in December of 1981 and notified the plaintiff again that the GP Engineering survey was incorrect.
As the Court’s earlier opinion states at page 4:
“[T]he elements of equitable estoppel are [1] a false representation or concealment of a material fact with actual or constructive knowledge of the truth; [2] the party asserting estoppel did'not know or could not discover the truth; [3] the false representation or concealment was made with the intent that it be relied upon; and [4] the person to whom the representation was made, or from whom the facts were concealed, relied and acted upon the representation or concealment to his prejudice.” (Emphasis and bracketed numbers added.)
After the plaintiff was told by the county surveyor Blakley in August of 1980 that the GP Engineering survey was incorrect, and after the plaintiff hired his own surveyor Richard Johnson who, after resurveying the property, also advised the plaintiff in December of 1981 that the GP Engineering survey was incorrect, at least three of the four requirements for equitable estoppel as set out on page 4 of our previous opinion were no longer present. Particularly, element number [2], “the party asserting estoppel did not know or could not discover the truth,” was no longer present. By December of 1981 the plaintiff knew *327that the defendant’s survey was inaccurate in the opinion of two other surveyors.
Secondly, after the plaintiff was advised of the results of his own surveyor’s location of the corner, it is difficult to see how it can be said that there was a continuing concealment or false representation by GP Engineering (which by that time was out of business) made with the intent that it be relied upon. Merely because GP stood by its own survey, and did not confess error, does not amount to a continuing concealment. If a claimant’s obtaining independent professional advice (here the independent Johnson survey) disclosing the first professional surveyor’s negligence does not dissipate the effect of this element of equitable estoppel, then there is no way that the statute of limitations in I.C. § 5-219(4) could ever run against professional malpractice short of the professional confessing his negligence. I don’t believe that the doctrine of equitable estoppel requires that.
Finally, the fourth element of equitable estoppel set out in our earlier opinion is missing. I don’t see how it can be said that after December, 1981, the plaintiff “relied and acted upon the representation” contained in the GP Engineering survey when he had the August, 1980, report of county surveyor Blakley and his own survey by Johnson which told him otherwise.
The four requirements for an equitable estoppel set out in our original opinion no longer existed after December, 1981. By the time the plaintiff filed his action in 1984, the two-year statute of limitations had run.
Accordingly, I would affirm the district court.