Appeals court hears challenge to substitution and damages in Lavender v. FCOI Preserve

The Utah Court of Appeals heard arguments in Lavender v. FCOI Preserve over whether the district court properly substituted FCOI Preserve into long-running property litigation and whether the trial evidence and pleadings supported the jury's damages award.

At oral argument, counsel for Lavender and Meyer told the three-judge panel that "FCOI Preserve is not a party to this lawsuit" and that the trial court therefore "had no jurisdiction to enter a judgment in favor of FCOI Preserve and against Lavender and Meyer." That position, advanced by counsel Trent Waddupz, asks the appellate court to set aside rulings that permitted substitution and later amendments that added claims and damages tied to 31 lot transfers.

The heart of the dispute is procedural: whether the district court permissibly substituted FCOI Preserve for an earlier entity under the Utah rules and whether that substitution (and related amendments) exposed Lavender and Meyer to stale claims or an improperly framed cause of action. "Standing is jurisdictional," Judge Ryan Tenney told counsel during questioning, "but it doesn't seem to me…