The Elk Mountain ranch owner at the center of Wyoming’s closely watched corner crossing case is preparing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, new filings show.
Lawyers for Fred Eshelman asked the nation’s highest court Wednesday for a 30-day extension to file a petition seeking Supreme Court review of the case. At stake, they wrote, is “one of the broadest abrogations of private property rights in American history.”
Eshelman, through his company Iron Bar Holdings, sued four hunters in 2022alleging they trespassed on his Elk Mountain Ranch when they passed through the airspace of his property while traveling to hunt on public land. The hunters were corner crossing — stepping from one piece of public land to another where those two parcels meet at a common corner with two private parcels, all arranged in a checkerboard pattern of ownership. They did not step on private land.
Eshelman, a wealthy North Carolina pharmaceutical executive, lost his federal suit in 2023but appealed the matter to the U.S. 10th Circuit in Denver. A three-judge panel sided with the hunters in March. Iron Bar was given until June 16 to appeal.
Now, Iron Bar wants an additional 30 days to file a petition seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of the case.
“This case raises exceptionally important issues at the intersection of private property rights and public access that warrant this Court’s review,” Iron Bar attorney Robert Reeves Anderson wrote in his application.
“The Tenth Circuit’s decision has vast reach, covering a huge portion of the roughly 300 million acres of checkerboard land and affecting landowners throughout the American West,” he added.
The 10th Circuit ruling unsettled a long-established understanding that corner crossing constitutes an unlawful trespass, the lawyer wrote.
“This area of confusion and disagreement must be resolved to provide clarity to landowners and hunters alike,” Anderson wrote.
An extension would give Iron Bar lawyers time to “fully prepare the petition” to the high court while also handling a number of other pending matters, Anderson wrote. He did not immediately respond Wednesday to a voicemail and email seeking comment.
Lengthy legal battle
The hunters — Bradly Cape, Phillip Yeomans, Zachary Smith and John Slowensky — corner crossed to hunt on Elk Mountain, where Eshelman owns a 22,000-acre ranch. Carbon County Prosecutor Ashley Mayfield Davis charged the men with criminal trespass but they were found not guilty by a local jury.
The federal civil lawsuit followed, but the men again prevailed — first at the district court level, and later in the 10th Circuit. Their attorney, Ryan Semerad of Casper, said Wednesday they were prepared for the additional legal battle ahead.
“Mr. Cape, Mr. Slowensky, Mr. Smith, Mr. Yeomans, and our legal team stand ready to keep fighting for and defending public access to public lands,” Semerad told WyoFile.
Public land advocates cheered the quartet’s 10th Circuit victory. But Semerad, earlier this month, urged outdoor enthusiasts to exercise caution and goodwill if they attempt to corner cross.
“It doesn’t mean you get to go on private property without permission, consent or something else,” Semerad said during a May 1 panel discussion in Laramie. “What it means is that you have reasonable access to step from one section to the next section, so long as you can be situated appropriately, you know where the monument marker is, you know where you’re going and you respect that.”
WyoFile journalists Angus Thuermer Jr. and Katie Klingsporn contributed to this report.
