Bar J Wranglers Lawsuit: Neighbors’ Appeal and 2021 Ruling

The Bar J Wranglers lawsuit was a federal case in which developer HRH LLC sued a group of neighbors, several individuals, and Teton County, Wyoming, claiming they had sabotaged its plan to redevelop the Bar J Chuckwagon property into 69 homes. HRH sought $14 million, alleging the neighbors filed sham administrative appeals to run out the clock on its option to buy the 21.2-acre parcel. After a bench trial in June 2021, Chief U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl ruled against the developers.¹

Who Sued Whom

HRH LLC, formed by developers Steve Hancock and Tom Reynolds, filed suit in June 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming. The case was captioned HRH, LLC v. Teton County, Wyoming, et al., Case No. 18-CV-104-SWS. Defendants included Teton County, the Alliance of Route 390 Neighbors, and several individual members of that group, among them James Speyer and Gerald and Diana Kitchen.²

The core claim was tortious interference with a contract and with prospective economic advantage. HRH alleged the Alliance’s administrative appeals were not genuine zoning challenges but a deliberate delay tactic aimed at killing a deal that the developers said “would have made millions.”²

Teton County was dismissed before trial. The court found no basis to assess liability against the county, in part because HRH did not own the property and had no protected property interest for the county to have infringed.²

The Development That Started the Fight

In April 2015, HRH signed an option agreement with property owner Babe Humphrey to buy the Bar J Chuckwagon site on Wyoming Highway 390. Two extensions set a final purchase price of $16 million and an option deadline of September 30, 2017.³

In March 2017, HRH applied to amend the Bar J Master Plan, proposing 46 market-rate townhouses and 23 affordable-housing condominiums for a total of 69 residential units. The underlying “Neighborhood Conservation” zoning would have allowed only about seven units on the parcel, so the application asked for nearly ten times the density the zoning permitted.³

The option expired on September 30, 2017, after Humphrey refused a third extension. Two days later, HRH withdrew its development application.³

The Neighbors’ Appeals

Residents of the neighboring Teton Pines Country Club formed the Alliance of Route 390 Neighbors in the fall of 2015 and hired attorney Matt Kim-Miller of Holland & Hart and former Teton County planning director Bill Collins.³

Between May 2016 and April 2017, the Alliance filed three administrative appeals challenging various aspects of the county’s handling of the project, from a pre-application conference summary to the sufficiency of the environmental assessment. All three were dismissed by the Teton County Board of County Commissioners, several on standing grounds.³ HRH’s lawsuit turned those losses into its evidence: if none of the appeals had merit, the developers argued, they must have been filed for delay.

The SLAPP Argument

The Alliance characterized HRH’s suit as a SLAPP, or strategic lawsuit against public participation, saying the developers were punishing neighbors for using the county’s own appeal process. Wyoming has no anti-SLAPP statute and has been graded “F” by the Public Participation Project for its lack of protections against such suits.⁴

The Alliance moved to dismiss on First Amendment grounds. Judge Skavdahl denied the motion, ruling that HRH’s allegation that the appeals were a “sham” was enough to survive dismissal and let the case reach trial.²

The 2021 Trial and Ruling

The bench trial ran from June 21 to June 29, 2021, at the Teton County Courthouse, with Richard R. Thomas representing HRH and Leah Schwartz representing the Alliance and remaining individual defendants.²³

The evidence undermined HRH’s damages theory. The court found that HRH’s internal communications treated the 69-unit application as a “negotiating tactic” rather than a serious proposal, and that its own lenders, investors, and professional planners had told the developers approval was “unlikely, at best.”³ The defense also noted that HRH had no written loan commitments to finance the deal.²

The court also found that Teton County planning staff had raised independent concerns about water and sewer, traffic, and wildlife migration throughout the summer of 2017 and had drafted a report recommending denial before HRH pulled the application in October. The project, in the court’s view, was heading toward rejection with or without the neighbors’ appeals, and HRH had never adequately addressed the density mismatch with the underlying zoning.³

Judge Skavdahl ruled against HRH.¹

What Happened to the Property

Babe Humphrey listed the Bar J property at $14 million and sold it to a different buyer in January 2021 for $13 million.³⁵⁶⁷

1
Jackson Hole News&Guide. Judge Rules Against Developers in Bar J Case
2
Jackson Hole News&Guide. Trial Begins for Bar J Lawsuit Over Developers’ Dispute With Neighbors
3
GovInfo. HRH, LLC v. Teton County, Wyoming, et al., Case No. 18-CV-104-SWS
4
Jackson Hole News&Guide. County Toss Lawsuit by Bar J’s Developer
5
Jackson Hole Press. Bar J Chuckwagon Rolls Out
6
Jackson Hole News&Guide. Former Bar J Chuckwagon Site to Host Events
7
Buckrail. Bar J Event Center Grand Opening, Free Pig Roast, Live Music