The opinion
RECEIVED & FILED
STATE OF MAINE SUPERIOR COURT
ANDROSCOGGIN, ss. JUL 1 2 2009 CIVIL ACTION
: ANDROSCOG Docket No. AP-99-022 .
SUPERIOR cont REA AD--7/lalocee
Faylene Webster and ) BONALE L. GARBRECHT
James Platz ) LAW LIRA RY
Appellants ) IL 18 2000
)
)
v. ) DECISION AND ORDER
)
The City of Auburn and )
.Tim Morse )
)
Appellees )
FACTS and BACKGROUND
On August 27, 1999, appellants James Platz (Platz) and Faylene Webster
(Webster) filed an 80B complaint seeking review of the decision of City of Auburn
to issue Tim Morse (Morse) an Entrance Permit (Permit) for a truck terminal.
Previously, Morse had sought approval from both the Town of Poland and the
City of Auburn to build a bark mulch processing plant (Plant) on property
straddling the Poland-Auburn boundary (Hardscrabble Road).! The Town of
Poland and the City of Auburn both approved the Plant. Subsequently,
appellants appealed both the Poland Board’s decision to approve the issuance of a
conditional use permit and the Auburn Board’s decision to approve the site plan
for the Plant.
On December 15, 1998, this Court held that the Auburn Planning Board’s
1 Appellant Platz’s residential property is located within one-half mile of the
Hardscrabble Road site on the Poland side. Platz also has property and a business in Auburn.
Appellant Webster’s residential property abuts the site on the Poland side. Webster has since
moved from this property although she still owns it.
approval of the Plant was unlawful because the portion of the lot located in
Auburn was zoned for agricultural and resource protection use at the time
Morse’s site plan was evaluated.? Conversely, the Poland Board’s decision to
approve the conditional use permit was affirmed.
In the present appeal, both Platz and Webster allege that the Auburn City
Engineer issued the Permit under material misrepresentations of fact. They
assert that Morse intends to route truck traffic through Auburn to the proposed
bark mulching Plant located in Poland. They argue that in light of this Court’s
December 15, 1998 decision, the accessory use of an access drive for trucks to
enter the site is unlawful.
Appellants further allege that Morse is attempting to circumvent the
December 15, 1998 decision by seeking piecemeal approval of the Plant and that
by issuing the Permit, the City of Auburn abused its discretion and committed
errors of law. Lastly, appellants argue that they should have received notice
from the City of Auburn when the Permit was approved on June 10, 1999 and
2 The Court held that permitted uses must be accessory to principal uses otherwise
permitted and that since the principal use was prohibited, the “accessory uses” proposed for the
site were also prohibited under the ordinance. Auburn’s Zoning Ordinance was thereafter
amended to allow industrial uses in the area where the Morse Bros.’ accessory uses for the bark
mulching plant was to be located. As a result, Morse sought a retroactive application of the
amendment to permit industrial activity on the Auburn portion of the site. At the time the
Auburn Board evaluated the Morse Bros.’ site plan, the Auburn portion of the lot was zoned for
agricultural and resource protection use. Absent a specific provision to the contrary, the
amendment to the ordinance could not be applied retroactively to the Board’s decision that was
pending or already decided when the ordinance was enacted. Therefore the Court did not apply
the amended ordinance.
subsequently issued to Morse.? Appellants claim that they have standing to
bring this appeal based on their involvement in the previous appeal, the location
of their respective residential properties in relation to the Hardscrabble Road
site, the potential devaluation of their property, the potential adverse effects
from the noise, air, water and aesthetic pollution and the disruption of the
neighborhood’s rural character.
The record on appeal in this case consists of Morse’s Application for an
Entrance Permit and an Entrance Design. Morse has moved to dismiss the
appeal. At issue in this case is whether appellants have a right to appeal from
the City of Auburn Engineer’s grant of the Entrance Permit to Appellee Morse.
DI ION
Chapter 27, § 3.3(b) of the City of Auburn Zoning Ordinance, does not
provide appellants with an express right to appeal the grant of the Entrance
Permit issued to Morse. The Ordinance only provides a right to appeal to the City
Manager from the denial of a permit. Moreover, the Ordinance does not require
that those parties who may be adversely affected by the grant of an Entrance
Permit receive notice.
The Appellees challenge the standing of the Appellants to contest the
3 Appellants contend that they had previously requested that the City of Auburn
keep them informed of any renewed attempts by Morse to proceed with further approvals from
the City for the bark mulch project. However, on July 27, 1999 Attorney Geismar, Morse’s
counsel, notified appellants’ counsel that the Permit had been issued to Morse.
3
granting of the Permit. Standing to sue means that the party, at the
commencement of the litigation, has a sufficient personal stake in the
controversy to obtain judicial resolution of that controversy. Halfway House,
Inc. v. City of Portland, 670 A.2d 1377, 1379 (1996). The “gist of the question
of standing” is whether the party seeking review has a sufficient personal stake
in a justiciable controversy to assure the existence of that “concrete adverseness”
that facilitates diligent development of the legal issues presented. Id. at 1380.
Courts cannot issue opinions on questions of fact or law simply because the issues
are disputed or interesting. Courts can only decide cases before them that
involve justiciable controversies. Justiciability requires a real and substantial
controversy, admitting of specific relief through a judgment of conclusive
character. Lewiston Daily Sun v. School Administrative District No. 43, 1999
ME 143, § 12. Not all administrative governmental action is appealable as a
justiciable controversy. If a case does not involve a justiciable controversy, it is
moot. Id. at 7 13.
Platz and Webster have failed to demonstrate the requisite particularized
injury necessary to bring the appeal. They allege that if the Permit is not
vacated, it will result in the eventual development of the Plant. The claimed
particularized injury from the previous appeals cannot simply be substituted in
the case at bar. Here, only the grant of the Permit to permit an entrance to the
Auburn premises from the public way is at issue, not the proposed development
of the Plant which has previously been twice litigated.
“In this case, Morse’s potential underlying use of the land to route truck
traffic through Auburn to a Plant in Poland, does not constitute particularized
injury flowing from the Entrance Permit. Accordingly, Platz and Webster do not
present sufficient facts which rise to the level of a potential particularized injury.
Appellants have presented no basis on which the Court could conclude that they
have suffered particularized injury resulting from the Entrance Permit in and of
itself. In order to substantiate claims of particularized injury Appellants must
show that such injury flows from the actual curb cut, not the proposed bark
mulch plant.
Significantly, the City of Auburn did not provide a right to appeal from
the grant of an Entrance Permit. Neither does the ordinance require that notice
of the application or a grant of the permit be given to anyone. M.R.Civ.P. Rule »
80B provides only the procedure for review of governmental action but does not
create an independent right to appeal from such action. Review is deemed
“otherwise available by law” if it is in the nature of that formerly available
under the common law extraordinary writs, such as certiorari, mandamus or
prohibition, adapted to current conditions. Dowey v. Sanford Housing
Authority, 516 A.2d 957, 959 (1986). If the review sought is not provided by
statute, review is “otherwise available by law” under Rule 80B if it is within
either: 1.) the traditional scope of review of one of the extraordinary writs as
determined by the direct application of prior authority delineating that scope of
review in cases comparable to that before the court; or 2.) a common-law
extension of the scope of review of one of the extraordinary writs to a case not
previously held to be within it. Id. at 960 (citations omitted).
The “otherwise available by law” language of M.R.Civ.P. 80B triggers
Superior Court review of an action formerly available under the common law
writ of certiorari when a agency’s actions are quasi-judicial in nature. Id. at
960. An agency’s actions are “quasi-judicial” in nature when it adjudicates the
rights of a party before it. The characterization of an administrative agency’s
action as judicial or quasi-judicial depends on the nature of the act performed,
rather than on the character of the officer or the body performing it. However,
an agency’s actions may not properly be considered “quasi-judicial” in nature
where the party seeking judicial review possessed no right to appear before the
agency in the first instance. Id. at 960.
Lastly, Appellants do not establish that they are entitled to review by way
of the common-law writ of mandamus. They were not entitled to a hearing and
thus cannot be said to have sought the ministerial performance of a specific duty
that they were entitled to have performed. Id. at 962. Accordingly, mandamus.
does not apply.
Therefore, unless Appellants establish a constitutionally protected
property interest that has been abridged, no right to appeal exists. Appellants
have cited no authority and the court has found none which would support a
claim that the City’s granting of the Permit abridges a constitutionally protected
property interest of the Appellants.
Accordingly, the court ORDERS that the appeal be DISMISSED and that
the grant of the Entrance Permit to Tim Morse be AFFIRMED.
The clerk shall incorporate this Order into the docket by reference.
Ordered.
Dated: pe (2, 2600
Attorney for the Appellants:
Jeffrey Rosenblatt, Esq.
Berman & Simmons, P.A.
129 Lisbon Street, P.O. Box 961
Lewiston, Maine 04243-0961
Attorney for the Appellee Morse:
Susan E. Oram, Esq.
Bonneau & Geismar, LLC
100 Lisbon Street, P.O. Box 7230
Lewiston, Maine 04243-7230
Attorney for the Appellee City of Auburn:
LilLok
Robert E. Crowley
Justice, Superior Court
Catherine R. Connors, Esq. and Helen L. Edmonds, Esq.
So