JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENTS

June 2008

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Utah Supreme Court Holds Statutory Requirement of Applicant Verification under Oath Is Not Satisfied by Attorney’s Signature
Penta Creeks LLC, v. Olds

The Utah Supreme Court recently held that as part of the General Adjudication of Rights in the Green River, that the unattested signature of an attorney on an objection filed to the Utah State Engineer’s (State Engineer) proposed determination, or preliminary decree, failed to meet the statutory requirement that objections be verified. It also held that the State Engineer’s reliance on an address list maintained by that office for purposes of mailing notice to claimants, as opposed to an official address list maintained by the clerk of the court, was in error. It therefore remanded for determination by the District Court whether the State Engineer’s notice to Penta of the first addendum to the proposed determination was proper and afforded Penta due process. Finally, the Court held that the proper test for determining whether due cause merits a retroactive extension of the filing deadline under § Utah Code Ann. §74-4-10 is whether excusable neglect or good cause warrants doing so. Accordingly, it remanded to the District Court for findings of whether excusable neglect or good cause existed here to merit retroactive extensions of the filing deadline.