Court Opinion

ID: 9759318
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:12:11.213328+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:01.187219
License: Public Domain

BURKE, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part, with whom VOIGT, Justice, joins.
[131] I respectfully dissent from that part of the majority's decision affirming the dismissal of the Kings' and Hansen's claims. Like the majority, I agree with the district court's decision to grant summary judgment to the Kings and Hansen on the question of whether the easement for Bunker Road was of public record, and to set for trial the question of whether they were bona fide purchasers for value without notice of the Bunker Road easement. I disagree, however, with the district court's subsequent decision to dismiss their claims in reliance on State Highway Comm'n v. Meeker, 75 Wyo. 210, 294 P.2d 603 (Wyo.1956).
[132] Mr. Meeker challenged the county's ownership of a highway right-of-way across his property on the basis that there was "no instrument of record in the office of the county clerk showing the highway." Id. at 215, 294 P.2d at 604. The right-of-way had been acquired through eminent domain, however, and the Court found "no statute which required the transfer of title by eminent domain to be recorded" in the public record. Id. at 218, 294 P.2d at 605. The Court said that "failure to record an instrument which is not required to be recorded does not affect or vitiate the instrument as to anyone, and it is valid not only between the parties thereto, but also to subsequent purchasers." Id. "Hence," the Court wrote, "it is quite clear that the title the State acquired under the condemnation proceedings in 1950 is valid and good against any subsequent purchaser of the same property." Id. Because Bunker Road had been established through eminent domain, the district court applied the ruling of the Meeker case and dismissed the Kings' and Hansen's claims.
[133] Meeker detours from a long line of Wyoming cases emphasizing that county road easements must be placed on the public ree-ord. George W. Condon Co. v. Board of County Comm'rs of Natrona County, 56 Wyo. 38, 54, 103 P.2d 401, 407 (1940) (statute "indicates a policy that roads should be shown on the records"); Nixon v. Edwards, 72 Wyo. 274, 293, 264 P.2d 287, 294 (1953) (Statutes dating from 1877, 1886, 1919, and 1921, all demonstrate "how thoroughly the legislature was convinced that all rural public roads should be shown on the public records."); Rocky Mountain Sheep Co. v. Board of County Comm'rs of Carbon County, 73 Wyo. 11, 269 P.2d 314 (1954); Ruby v. Schuett, 360 P.2d 170 (Wyo.1961); Kern v. Deerwood Ranch, 528 P.2d 910 (Wyo.1974); Yeager v. Forbes, 2003 WY 134, 78 P.3d 241 (Wyo.2003). Each of these cases is factually distinguishable from the case before us now, but taken together, they establish that the Wyoming Legislature and this Court have consistently, with the exception of Meeker, said that county roads must be placed on the public record.
[$34] This policy extends not to county roads only, but to all real property conveyances. "Public policy requires that subsequent purchasers be able to rely on the title shown in public records." Grose v. Sauvageau, 942 P.2d 398, 408 (Wyo.1997). Applying Meeker to the case at hand, however, means that neither the Kings nor Hansen can rely on their title as shown in the Fremont County Clerk's property records. That seriously undermines "the purpose of our recording statutes, which entitle one to rely on public records and determine whether or not a certain property is subject to liens, prior encumbrances or other outstanding claims." Wyoming Dep't of Revenue & Taxation-Excise Tax Div. v. First Wyoming Bank, N.A.-Kemmerer, 718 P.2d 31, 35 (Wyo.1986).
[185] The Court in Meeker indicated that the proceedings of the Board of County Commissioners gave Mr. Meeker constructive notice of the Commissioners' decision to acquire the highway right-of-way. As stated in a droll but persuasive argument offered by Hansen, if the ruling in Meeker is controlling in this case, then
every conveyance of land would have to be accompanied by a review of all proceedings of the county commissioners back to 1890. With the greatest respect to the important and critical functions performed by each *491board of county commissioners, the inordinate cost and agonizing boredom of such an exercise is readily apparent.
[136] Because of its anomalous nature and impracticable result, the decision in Meeker should be limited to its peculiar facts. By the time of trial in the Meeker case, "construction of the highway was commenced and ... substantially completed." Meeker, 75 Wyo. at 214, 294 P.2d at 604. That is not true of Bunker Road. In addition, Mr. Meeker "was in possession of the land in question as lessee during all of the time the eminent domain proceedings were taking place and must have had notice thereof." Id. at 219, 294 P.2d at 606. Hansen and the Kings were not in possession of the land in question in 19183 when the County Commissioners undertook to establish Bunker Road.
[137] More significantly, Meeker is distinguishable on legal grounds. That decision rested on the Court's finding "no statute which required the transfer of title by eminent domain to be recorded" in the public record. Id. at 218, 294 P.2d at 605. In the case before us now, there is at least one statute requiring the Bunker Road easement to be recorded. In 1919, the Wyoming Legislature enacted this statute:
On and after January 1st, 1922, all roads within this State shall be highways, which have been or may be declared by law to be national, state, territorial or county roads or highways. It shall be the duty of the several Boards of County Commissioners, within their respective counties, prior to said date, to determine what if any such roads now or heretofore travelled but not heretofore officially established and recorded, are necessary or important for the public use as permanent roads, and to cause such roads to be recorded, or if need be laid out, established and recorded, and all roads recorded as aforesaid, shall be highways. No other roads shall be highways unless and until lawfully established as such by official authority.
1919 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 112, § 1. In 1921, this statute was amended to change the deadline date to January 1, 1924. 1921 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 100, § 1. With that alteration, the statute remains in effect today. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 24-1-101(a) (LexisNexis 2009). The County Commissioners undertook to establish Bunker Road in 1913, but failed to record it, This statute imposed upon them the duty of rectifying that failure. Notably, this statute makes no distinction between roads acquired by eminent domain and those acquired by other means. Because this statute required the Bunker Road easement to be recorded, the ruling in Meeker is not controlling here.1
[138] Accordingly, I would reverse the district court's decision to dismiss the claims raised by the Kings and Hansen. I would remand to the district court with instructions to proceed to trial on the question of whether the Kings and Hansen are bona fide subsequent purchasers for value who took title to their properties without notice of the Bunker Road easement.

. The Meeker decision does not discuss this statute.