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Director of the Office of State Lands & Investments v. Merbanco6/6/2003
The state objected to the district court's consideration of the declaratory judgment action primarily because the board had made no final decision on SRA's proposed land exchange or Merbanco's proposed public auction of the lands in question. Without such final decision, the state insists, no justiciable controversy exists. While conceding the court has jurisdiction pursuant to Article 5, Section 10 of the Wyoming Constitution and the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, the state contends such jurisdiction does not extend to advisory opinions "since binding legal determinations made in the abstract and decisions rendered without concrete factual background would be imprecise, subject to speculation, and would create rather than diminish future controversies." Cranston v. Thomson, 530 P.2d 726, 729 (Wyo. 1975). The state argues a justiciable controversy requires the parties have "'existing and genuine, as distinguished from theoretical, rights or interests.'" Brimmer v. Thomson, 521 P.2d 574, 578 (Wyo. 1974) (quoting Sorenson v. City of Bellingham, 496 P.2d 512, 517 (Wash. 1972)). The state points out the board's decision did not foreclose the possibility of a public auction, leaving the court with hypothetical facts and issues.
In response, the challengers contend they object to the very process the board was pursuing which assumed the option of an exchange without a public auction was available. The record discloses this process continued over a period of almost two years before this litigation commenced. The state, SRA, and the other interested parties, including the Teton County commission, all proceeded as if the option of a land exchange without a public auction was available, and, for a time, the state conducted exclusive negotiations with the proponents of an exchange. Merbanco entered the fray in direct competition with SRA, urging the state to adopt its position that a public auction was constitutionally required.
This controversy over the constitutionality of exchanges of state lands without a public auction impacts many stakeholders, including state school land lessees, the beneficiaries of the funds generated by state school lands, the legislature which adopted statutes authorizing exchanges, those members of the executive branch of state government whose responsibility it is to steward the state school lands, as well as the public at large. As inevitable growth and development increase the pressure on Wyoming state lands, the need for certainty and clarity regarding this aspect of the management of state lands grows. We conclude this is precisely the type of circumstance contemplated by the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, the purpose of which "is to settle and to afford relief from uncertainty and insecurity with respect to legal relations." Section 1-37-114. The act instructs that we are to liberally construe it to fulfill that purpose. Barber v. City of Douglas, 931 P.2d 948 (Wyo. 1997); Reiman Corporation v. City of Cheyenne, 838 P.2d 1182 (Wyo. 1992).
The state's argument that we must let the board's process with regard to the Teton Village school section run its course is counter to the entire thrust of the declaratory judgments statute which was designed to enable parties to obtain judicial determinations prior to an injury rather than requiring them to wait until the damage is done. The board itself possesses no power to resolve questions of constitutionality. Riedel v. Anderson (Conflicting Lease Applications for Wyoming Agricultural Lease No. 1-7021), 972 P.2d 586, 587 (Wyo. 1999). We have rejected the argument that, in the context of administrative agency action, parties must exhaust their administrative remedies before challenging the authority of the
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