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Riedel v. Anderson6/4/2003
In this appeal the Court is asked to decide the constitutionality of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 36-5-105(a) and (e), governing the preferential leasing of school lands, and whether the state's school lands are encumbered by a trust and, if so, the nature of that trust. Before we examine these weighty issues, however, we must first address an issue of standing.
As explained below, we hold that William H. Riedel has standing to challenge the constitutionality of the statute in question; that the school lands are subject to neither a federal trust nor a state constitutional trust, but rather to a legislatively-created statutory trust; and that William H. Riedel has failed to prove that the preferential-right-to-renew statute violates any constitutional or fiduciary restraints on the State's management of the school lands.
ISSUES
The parties have filed a total of eight briefs in this matter, in their appellant and appellee capacities, containing approximately twenty-four different formulations of the issues on appeal. Consolidating those various formulations, the appeals raise the following issues for this Court's determination:
1. Whether Riedel has standing to challenge the constitutionality of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 36-5-105(a) and (e) governing the leasing of school lands.
2. Whether the Wyoming Act of Admission, 26 Stat. 222, Ch. 664 (July 10, 1890), the Wyoming Constitution, or Wyoming statutes establish a trust with respect to the lands which the United States gave to Wyoming for the support of the common schools.
3. If the state school lands are in fact held in trust, whether the statutory right of a previous lessee to renew a lease of state school lands violates the State's management duties with respect to those lands.
FACTS
Craig C. and Gail M. Anderson held an agricultural lease to approximately 640 acres of state-owned land in Laramie County. The leased land is Section 36 of Township 16 North, Range 63 West of the 6th P.M., and as such is part of the land granted to the State by Congress "for the support of the common schools" upon Wyoming's admission to the Union in 1890. Wyoming Act of Admission, 26 Stat. 664, §§ 4, 5 (Reprinted in Wyo. Stat. Ann. Vol. 1).
The term of Andersons' lease was to expire at the end of December 1997. As authorized by statute, they submitted a renewal lease application to the Office of State Lands and Investments, the statutory administrator of the land, proposing an annual lease rate of $4,586.40. There were two competing lease offers for the same parcel; one proposed a lower rate than the Andersons but William H. Riedel, the Andersons' neighbor, proposed to pay an annual rate of $6,000 for the same section.
Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 36-5-105 provides that the holder of an expiring lease shall have a preferential right to renew that lease if the holder meets any competing bid for the subject parcel. Andersons met the Riedel bid of $6,000 per year and, on January 16, 1998, the interim director of the Office of State Lands and Investments awarded the lease to the Andersons for a ten-year term at $6,000 per year.
Riedel filed an administrative appeal of the interim director's award to the Andersons. The Board of Land Commissioners conducted a hearing and upheld the interim director's decision by letter dated May 6, 1998. Riedel then brought a petition for judicial review of the Board's decision in the district court, challenging the constitutionality of the preference statute. On certification to this Court, the petition was dismissed on the grounds that the Court lacked jurisdiction to review the constitutionality of a statute upon petit
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