Utah Supreme Court weighs whether water-application appeal survives applicant’s death

The Utah Supreme Court heard argument in Marriott v. Helmsen on whether an appeal of a state engineer’s denial of a water-appropriation application survives the applicant’s death and can be continued by the applicant’s personal representative.

The issue was joined by counsel for the appellant, Robert Mansfield; counsel for Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, Melissa Reynolds; and Andrew Dimock for the State. The court’s questions focused on three legal lines: whether an application to appropriate water is a property interest that can survive death under common law, whether Utah’s water code precludes applying common-law survivability rules, and what practical effects survival would have on the statutory administrative review process.

Appellant counsel Robert Mansfield, representing the estate’s proposed personal representative, said the application should survive. “We believe that that claim would survive, the death of mister Marriott under the common law,” Mansfield told the court, arguing that the application gives “rights … to possess, use, enjoy, and dispose of a thing” under property definitions the parties cited in briefing.

Melissa Reynolds, counsel for Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, acknowledged that filing an…