Hansen v. Bd. of Comm'rs of Benton Cnty.

Under the invited error doctrine, a party fails to preserve for appeal a claim of error when the claiming party was "actively instrumental in bringing about" the alleged error.

Petitioners appealed a trial court decision to remand to the Board the question of whether two property owners had a vested right to subdivide a parcel of land, arguing that the trial court erred as a matter of law in doing so. The Court of Appeals held that this claim was unpreserved in the record, noting that, at the trial court level, Petitioners had included a remand of the issue as a potential form of relief. “Under the invited error doctrine, a party who ‘was actively instrumental in bringing about’ an alleged error ‘cannot be heard to complain, and the case ought not to be reversed because of it.’” State v. Kammeyer, 226 Or. App. 210, 214, 203 P.3d 274, rev den, 346 Or. 590 (2009) (quoting Anderson v. Oregon Railroad Co., 45 Or. 211, 217, 77 P. 119 (1904)). The Court held that Petitioners invited the alleged error by claiming as error a requested form of relief. Affirmed.