Summary 2010 WY 17

Summary of Decision issued February 19, 2010

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Case Name: Thorkildsen v. Belden

Citation: 2010 WY 17

Docket Number: S-09-0154

Appeal from the District Court of Teton County, the Honorable Nancy J. Guthrie, Judge.

Representing Appellant Thorkildsen: David G. Lewis of Jackson, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee Belden: Richard J. Mulligan of Mulligan Law Office; Heather Noble of Jackson, Wyoming.

Facts/Discussion: Thorkildsen appealed from the district court’s Order Granting Defendants’ Motion for Costs arguing that the district court erred in not including an award for attorney’s fees.

Thorkildsen argued that the order awarding costs but failing to address attorney’s fees amounted to an implicit denial of an award and that such action was error. The Court found Thorkildsen’s argument that the portion of his motion pertaining to attorney’s fees was “implicitly denied” or “deemed denied” unpersuasive.

Conclusion: Because the district court’s Order Granting Defendants’ Motion for Costs only addressed costs, the district court made no findings of facts and reached no conclusions of law with respect to attorney’s fees. Thus Thorkildsen was left to appeal only from an award of costs that he didn’t challenge. The Court’s remedy was to remand with instructions to make appropriate findings of facts and conclusions of law relating to the issue of attorney’s fees.

Remanded.

C.J. Voigt delivered the decision.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/ycbo5u2 .

[SPECIAL NOTE: This opinion uses the "Universal Citation." It was given an "official" citation when it was issued. You should use this citation whenever you cite the opinion, with a P.3d parallel citation. Please note when you look at the opinion that all of the paragraphs are numbered. When you pinpoint cite to a quote, you should cite to this paragraph number rather than to any page number. If you need assistance in putting together a citation using the Universal Citation form, please contact the Wyoming State Law Library.]