Court denies motion to dismiss Montava irrigation ditch case

FORT COLLINS — Montava Development and Construction LLC will be able to move forward with its case against WRCC Inc., the owner of an irrigation ditch that runs through the 999-acre Montava development in northeast Fort Collins.

Judge C. Michelle Brinegar on May 24 denied WRCC’s motion seeking dismissal of the action.

Montava Development & Construction, along with related companies, filed a lawsuit in February against WRCC, the company that owns and operates a ditch across part of which Montava hopes will be a large residential and commercial development near the Anheuser-Busch facility. The lawsuit alleged that after years of negotiations with the Eaton-based company to reach an agreement on ditch crossing, that ditch operators illegally were blocking Montava with demanded changes.

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WRCC sees the situation differently. It moved to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that because Montava doesn’t actually yet own the property that it wants to develop, it does not have standing to file the lawsuit in the first place. It said the property is owned by Anheuser-Busch and the Poudre  School District, which are not party to the lawsuit.

Judge Brinegar wrote in her denial of the motion to dismiss that Montava “has plausibly asserted that it may be entitled to such relief” and that it may have “suffered an injury-in-fact to a legally protected interest.”

She ordered WRCC to respond within 14 days of her order and all parties need to work with the court to set a case management conference.

The case is Montava Development & Construction LLC, et al, versus WRCC Inc., case number 2024cv30143 filed in Larimer County District Court on Feb. 19, 2024.