Zonts v. Pleasant Grove City

Summary

The Utah Supreme Court denied a petition for extraordinary relief challenging the ballot title for a Pleasant Grove City initiative. The court held that the petitioners failed to demonstrate under Utah Rule of Appellate Procedure 19 that they lacked a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy in the district court. The court also noted that factual disputes and inadequate supporting documentation further impeded direct appellate review.

Holdings

1. Petitioners failed to satisfy their burden of demonstrating that they had no plain, speedy, and adequate remedy other than filing directly in the Utah Supreme Court.
2. The statutory reference to an appeal does not create an appeal of right under Utah Rules of Appellate Procedure 3 and 4. A challenge to the local attorney's ballot-title decision must proceed through a petition for extraordinary relief under Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 65B or, when district court relief is not plain, speedy, and adequate, under Utah Rule of Appellate Procedure 19.
3. The court declined to resolve petitioners' ballot-title challenges because the petition presented disputed factual assumptions without adequate evidentiary support and lacked a record developed in district court.

Questions Presented

1. Whether petitioners satisfied Utah Rule of Appellate Procedure 19 by demonstrating that they lacked a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy in district court.
2. Whether Utah Code section 20A-7-508(6)(a) authorizes an appeal of right directly to the Utah Supreme Court from a local attorney's ballot-title decision.
3. Whether the court could resolve petitioners' ballot-title challenges in the extraordinary-relief proceeding despite disputed factual assumptions and the absence of an adequately developed record.

Disposition

writ_denied