v. Wilson
Filing
149
ORDERED that the Motions (## 141 , 148 ) are DENIED. Signed by Judge Robert C. Jones on 11/9/2015. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - DRM)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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DISTRICT OF NEVADA
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_____________________________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
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Plaintiff,
vs.
DALTON WILSON,
Defendant.
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3:09-cv-00166-RCJ-WGC
ORDER
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Defendant Dalton Wilson owned 80 acres of land in Lander County, Nevada. When
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Plaintiff the United States discovered that Defendant had built structures on adjacent federal
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land, it notified him that he was trespassing and asked him to remove the structures but offered in
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the alternative to sell him the adjacent land. Defendant neither purchased the adjacent land nor
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removed the structures, and when he lost his own 80 acres to foreclosure in 2005, he moved into
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one or more of the structures on the federal land. In a 2008 criminal trespass case, Judge
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Sandoval found Defendant not guilty because of the doubt over ownership of the land created by
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Lander County’s suit against the United States filed the day before. Judge Sandoval later
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dismissed Lander County’s suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction when Lander County
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confirmed it did not seek to quiet title to the land. Indeed, Lander County had previously
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quitclaimed the land to the United States.
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In the present case, the United States sued Wilson for civil trespass in 2009, seeking
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damages and ejectment. In 2009, Judge Reed granted Plaintiff summary judgment on liability
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and entered a permanent injunction, leaving damages to a jury. When Plaintiff later withdrew its
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claim for damages, Judge Reed entered judgment. The Court of Appeals summarily affirmed.
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Defendant has asked the Court to relive him from the “void” Judgment under Rule
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60(b)(4). Defendant identifies no circumstances that could cause the Court to find the Judgment
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to be void. The Double Jeopardy Clause does not prevent both a civil and criminal action based
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on the same acts unless the civil action is in substance punitive, which is plainly not the case as
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to a common law trespass claim. Hudson v. United States, 522 U.S. 93, 99 (1997). Nor does the
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doctrine of res judicata prevent a finding of civil trespass after an acquittal as to a criminal
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trespass charge. Even assuming the elements of the two claims are the same, a criminal acquittal
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only means that it has not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt that a trespass occurred. But
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unless a judge or jury has so found via special verdict, an acquittal is not a determination that a
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trespass did not occur, but only a determination that it did not occur beyond a reasonable doubt.
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It remains logically possible after a general acquittal that a trespass occurred by a preponderance
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of the evidence. So long as the civil claim need only be proved to a lesser degree of certainty
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than “beyond a reasonable doubt,” a finding of civil trespass is not inconsistent with an acquittal
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as to criminal trespass. In any case, these arguments were previously available to Defendant, and
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to the extent he raised them, the Court of Appeals has already rejected them.
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CONCLUSION
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IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Motions (ECF Nos. 141, 148) are DENIED.
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
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Dated this 9th day November, 2015.
Dated this 3rd day of of November, 2015.
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_____________________________________
ROBERT C. JONES
United States District Judge
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