The Wyoming Supreme Court held that a county board lacked substantial evidence to downgrade a home’s condition rating and reinstated the assessor’s valuation.
The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed Albany County’s 2023 amendments to its Aquifer Protection Overlay Zone — including a 35-acre minimum lot size within the Casper Aquifer recharge area — holding that counties may use general zoning authority under Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 18-5-201 to protect groundwater without displacing WDEQ’s water quality jurisdiction. The court also established, for the first time in a published Wyoming opinion, that the arbitrary and capricious standard of review applies to all agency legislative action (rulemaking) under WAPA, resolving a gap left open by Bienz v. Board of County Commissioners, 2024 WY 102. Justice Hill dissented on authority, arguing the EQA grants WDEQ exclusive jurisdiction over water quality regulation.
The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the Medical Commission’s denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a claimant who developed pancreatitis after a Depakote dosage increase prescribed for migraines caused by his 2014 compensable head injury, holding that a numerical majority of supporting experts does not satisfy the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard and that the Commission acted within its discretion in rejecting an expert’s causation opinion premised on a dosing timeline contradicted by the claimant’s own testimony.