352 P.2d 225 | Utah | 1960
. ■ Appeal from denial of defendants’ motion to file supplemental answers. Affirmed in part and reversed in part. No costs awarded.
This is a taxpayers’ suit seeking to set aside a sale of part of a tract of city property alleged to have been acquired by the bi'ty for park purposes. Defendants, who claim to be purchasers, have erected motel improvements thereon. The complaint urged that the sale was void for irregularity of city council procedure in attempting the sale, and for lack of authority to effect the transaction. The prayer also asked for an order that the claimants forthwith be required to remove all structures placed on the subject property
At trial’s end the court indicated that he thought the sale legally could not have been accomplished except by vacating the property as a park, under Sec. 10-8-8, U.C.A. 1953, but took the matter under advisement. The city and its council thereupon built machinery to satisfy the statute by passing an ordinance and giving 30 days’ notice thereof. After passing the ordinance, but before the 30 days had expired, a motion for permission to file supplementary answers setting forth such facts, as a defense to the action, was filed, but denied by the court. Petition for an interlocutory appeal followed, attacking such denial. That is the matter before us.
The complaint attacked only .the legality of the claimed sale. The subsequent passage of the ordinance in this case itself did not claim, and there was no other claim of invalidation of the previous procedure. It simply purported to provide a different mechanism with which to hurdle the trans
We recognize that permitting supplementary pleadings is largely discretionary with the trial court.
. Rule 15(d), Utah Rules of Civil Procedure See. 455, p. 945. 1 Barron & Holtzoff, Fed.Prac. and Proc.,