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Pavuk v. Rogers8/17/2001
n that regard, in 1999 the legislature passed certain "residential rental property" statutes, the effect of which is to "alter the existing law which governs the landlord and tenant relationship." Flores, 999 P.2d at 1313 n.1; Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211 (LexisNexis 2001). Those statutes took effect on July 1, 1999.
[ ] With the state of the law being relatively clear on this issue in Wyoming, one might wonder what room remains for appellant's arguments. He finds support for his position in two places. First, although we opined in Ortega that the issue was a legislative one, we also hinted that "a proper record and insightful analysis of whether conditions in Wyoming warrant a change" were lacking in that case. Ortega, 902 P.2d at 204. Second, appellant suggests that we should find clear legislative intent in the new legislation that landlords have a duty to maintain safe premises.
[ ] We decline to take the path laid out for us by appellant. Leases are contractual in nature and are governed by contract law. Wolin v. Walker, 830 P.2d 429, 431 (Wyo. 1992); Automatic Gas Distributors, Inc. v. State Bank of Green River, 817 P.2d 441, 442 (Wyo. 1991). Contracts are written in light of existing law, including common law, and statutes ought not be applied retroactively so as to deprive contracting parties of their rights. Application of Hagood, 356 P.2d 135, 138 (Wyo. 1960); Mull v. Wienbarg, 66 Wyo. 410, 212 P.2d 380, 389 (1949). This is consistent with the constitutional mandate that no law shall be made impairing the obligation of contracts. Wyo. Const. art. 1, § 35. The effect of a retroactive judicial abrogation of landlord immunity could be drastic. Superimposition of a legal duty upon an existing landlord-tenant relationship would add to the landlord's burdens without a balancing increase in the benefits, and would deprive him of a fair opportunity to shoulder that additional burden. Furthermore, by passage of the residential rental property statutes, the legislature has addressed the policies and factors mentioned in Ortega. We are not now inclined to duplicate that effort, both because we still consider it to be a legislative function and because we want to avoid the creation of potentially conflicting duties.
CONCLUSION
[ ] There were no issues of material fact and the district court correctly applied the existing law of the State of Wyoming in granting summary judgment to appellees. The common law doctrine of landlord immunity was in effect in 1996 when this incident occurred and we are not inclined to abrogate it retroactively. The decision of the district court is affirmed.
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