Justia Government & Administrative Law Opinion Summaries

Petitioners Kittitas County and several other parties challenged two final decisions and orders of the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board (Board). The Board found several provisions of the County's revised comprehensive plan (Plan) and development code noncompliant with the Growth Management Act (GMA). Petitioners argued that the Board misinterpreted the law and acted beyond its jurisdiction, without substantial evidence, and arbitrarily and capriciously in making findings related to rural and agricultural densities and uses, zoning techniques, land use near airports and water resources. Upon review of the record, the Supreme Court found that the Board did not improperly disregard evidence and appropriately found that the County violated the GMA by failing to: develop the required written record explaining its rural element; include provisions in its Plan that protect rural areas; provide for a variety of rural densities; protect agricultural land; and protect water resources. However, the Court found that the Board improperly found the County's airport overlay zone was noncompliant with the GMA. The Court remanded the case back to the Board for further proceedings with respect to the airport overlay zone.

Petitioners Albert Ugas and Daniel Fishburn filed a recall petition against Respondent Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist, charging him with misfeasance and/or malfeasance and breach of his oath of office. Petitioners alleged that Mr. Lindquist failed to investigate alleged corruption and falsification of records by a former county assessor-treasurer. Additionally, Petitioners contended that Mr. Lindquist obstructed justice by deterring law enforcement from investigating the assessor-treasurer. The lower court dismissed Petitioners' affidavit of prejudice and held that the recall petition was legally and factually insufficient. The court awarded Mr. Lindquist $50,000 in attorney fees for Petitioners' intentionally filing a frivolous recall petition in bad faith. Petitioners argued on appeal that their recall petition was legally and factually sufficient and that they should not have been ordered to pay attorney fees. Upon review of the petition and the applicable legal authority, the Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's decision.

In 1994, Respondent Sylvia Smith began to experience pain in her wrists and swelling in her arms. She was prescribed splints to wear while working for Petitioner Crown, Cork & Seal as a "bagger." In 1997, Respondent sustained an injury at work when a forklift ran over and fractured her leg. In 2005, the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) determined that because of the forklift accident Respondent was permanently and totally disabled. L&I ordered Crown to place Respondent on the pension rolls. L&I also issued an order that denied Crown "second injury fund" coverage. On Crown's appeal, the superior court reversed the L&I orders. The court concluded that Respondent's wrist injuries preexisted the forklift injury and as such did not constitute a "previous bodily disability." L&I appealed to the Court of Appeals, who reversed the superior court's ruling. The question before the Supreme Court was what constituted a "previous bodily disability" for second injury fund coverage. The Court responded by holding that a "previous bodily injury" under state law is one that "effectively impacts an employee's performance in the workplace or materially diminishes the employee's functional ability to perform the routine activities associated with daily living." The Court affirmed the Court of Appeal's holding in favor of Respondent.

In Fall 2010, former employees and representatives of the Town of Coulee filed a petition to recall Mayor Rick Heiberg. Of eleven charges, only two were found by the courts to be factually and legally sufficient to support a recall election. On appeal to the Supreme Court, it was determined that the two surviving claims against the mayor were not legally sufficient to support a recall. The Court reversed the lower courts' decisions and dismissed the recall petition.

There was a catastrophic failure at the Spokane waste water treatment plant. One man was killed, and two others were severely injured. The survivors, including Respondent Larry Michaels, successfully sued Appellant CH2M Hill, the engineering firm that worked for the city at the time of the accident. The City of Spokane, as employer of Respondents, was immune from liability under the Industrial Insurance Act. All parties agreed that the City was negligent. The issue at trial was whether CH2M Hill was also negligent. On appeal to the Supreme Court, CH2M Hill challenged the trial judge's rulings on its liability as well as twenty-six other findings of fact. Of importance here was whether the City's immunity could be imputed to CH2M Hill under the same insurance act. The Supreme Court dissected all twenty-six points in its review, and concluded that CH2M Hill was not entitled to the same immunity as the City. The Court agreed with all rulings of the trial court. The Court affirmed the trial court's decision in the case.

Robin Farris filed six charges against the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam. Ms. Farris charged that Mr. Washam violated whistleblower protections, retaliated against his employees, grossly wasted public funds, failed to cooperate with discrimination and retaliation investigations, and violated his oath of office. Ms. Farris appeared pro se, and there were technical flaws with the filing of her six charges against Mr. Washam. Through the course of the proceedings, Ms. Farris amended her charges to comply with the courtâs rules of pleading. Mr. Washam contended that there was no statutory authority to allow the recall charges to be amended, and because the original filing was fatally flawed, the Supreme Court should dismiss the entire recall effort. On March 3, 2011, the Supreme Court entered a brief order that affirmed the lower courtâs decision to allow the recall effort to proceed. The Courtâs May 12, 2011 order set forth the reasons for its March decision. The Court affirmed the trial court in all aspects.

In 2006, Defendant Whatcom County (County) approved three land use applications for development in the Birch Bay urban growth area. Petitioner Whatcom County Fire District No. 21 (the Fire District) filed a Land Use Petition Act (LUPA) petition to challenge the approvals. At issue between the parties was whether the completion of the proposed developments would reduce fire protection services to below an âadequateâ level of service. On review of the record, the Supreme Court found that the County had assigned the responsibility for assessing the adequacy of fire protection services to the Fire District. Because the Fire District determined the services it could provide would fall below an âadequateâ standard, the lower court properly granted its LUPA petition. The Court reversed the Countyâs approval of the land use applications for Birch Bay.

Kemper Freeman and several other Washington taxpayers appealed directly to the Supreme Court to try to stop the governor and other state officials from "taking any action" on plans to convert high-occupancy lanes on Interstate 90 into light rail lines. Though Petitioners asked the Court to grant a writ of mandamus, the Court found that Petitioners were essentially seeking a declaratory judgment to bar the State Department of Transportation from selling or leasing any portion of the Interstate for light rail use. The Court found that such a request was outside of it's jurisdiction, and refused to issue the writ.