Case Title: Sustainable Forests, LLC v. Alabama Power Company

Citation: 805 So. 2d 681

Docket Number: 1000060

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 2001-06-01T00:00:00Z

Document:
805 So. 2d 681 (2001)
SUSTAINABLE FORESTS, L.L.C.
v.
ALABAMA POWER COMPANY.
1000060.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
June 1, 2001.
Lee E. Bains, Jr., Jeffrey M. Grantham, Stephen C. Jackson, Alexander J. Marshall III, and David P. Donahue of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C., Birmingham, for plaintiff.
Edward S. Allen of Balch & Bingham, L.L.P., Birmingham; James A. Byram, Jr., of Balch & Bingham, L.L.P., Montgomery; and John N. Leach and Warren C. Herlong, Jr., of Helmsing, Leach, Herlong, Newman & Rouse, P.C., Mobile, for defendant.
James H. McLemore and J. Lister Hubbard of Capell & Howard, P.C., Montgomery, for amicus curiae Alabama Forestry Association, in support of the plaintiff.
Thomas J. Saunders, Alabama Industry and Manufacturers Association, Montgomery; and Michael M. Partain, USX Corp., Fairfield, for amici curiae Alabama Industry and Manufacturers Association and USX Corporation.
HARWOOD, Justice.
Judge William M. Acker, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, certified to this Court two questions, pursuant to Rule 18, Ala. R.App. P. Those questions relate to a declaratory-judgment action in the federal court brought by Sustainable Forests, L.L.C. (hereinafter referred to as "Sustainable"). Sustainable filed this action after Alabama Power Company (hereinafter referred to as "APCo") filed condemnation proceedings in Escambia County and Chilton County by which it seeks to acquire rights-of-way across Sustainable's property. Sustainable seeks a judgment declaring that APCo's statutory power of eminent domain, which allows *682 APCo to condemn land for the purpose of constructing and maintaining electric power transmission lines, does not authorize APCo to condemn land for the purpose of installing fiber-optic communication lines either for its own use or for lease by APCo to third-parties. Each party has filed in the federal court a motion for a summary judgment. The questions certified to this Court are:
The federal court has set out the relevant and undisputed facts it believes to provide the basis on which this controversy can be resolved:
APCo has stated in its brief to this Court that it has no plans to place fiber-optic communication lines on the rights-of-way it is currently seeking through the pending condemnation proceeding in the Probate Court of Chilton County and the proceeding that Sustainable has appealed to the Circuit Court of Escambia County from the probate court of that county. While Sustainable's apprehension that APCo will attempt to place communication lines and/or fiber-optic cables on its rights-of-way at some point in the future has some basis, given the materials presented to this Court, we do not believe so speculative an eventuality presents a justiciable controversy in the context of which we can definitively answer the questions certified to us by the federal court.
The certified questions require us to interpret the broad term "communication lines." Whether this term might encompass means and materials for the purpose of communication other than "lines" is speculative, especially in light of evolving communication technology. It appears that the placement of "communication lines" within the rights-of-way, whether above or below ground, is the point of contention. Finally, the questions call for this Court to speculate on the purpose for which those "communication lines" will be used, within the context of APCo's power of eminent domain to facilitate the transmission of electric power.
While this Court and the Court of Civil Appeals have suggested that a declaratory-judgment action may be the proper method by which to construe an existing easement, see Withers v. Mobile Gas Service Corp., 567 So. 2d 253 (Ala.1990), and City of Dothan v. Eighty-Four West, Inc., 738 So. 2d 903 (Ala.Civ.App.1999), we do not have here an existing easement before us that one party is prepared to contest. Thus, we are requested to fashion a broad rule concerning APCo's use of "communication lines," without any indication of a particular instance of such a use.
In other appeals to this Court from judgments in similar declaratory-judgment actions, we have likewise found no actual justiciable controversy. In Hunt Transition and Inaugural Fund, Inc. v. Grenier, 782 So. 2d 270 (Ala.2000), this Court stated:
782 So. 2d  at 272.
"Subject matter jurisdiction can neither be conferred by agreement nor can it be waived. Indeed, it is incumbent upon the court to notice subject matter jurisdiction sua sponte." Int'l Longshoremen's Ass'n v. Davis, 470 So. 2d 1215, 1216 (Ala. 1985). Upon consideration of the facts as presented by the federal court as well as by the briefs filed by APCo, Sustainable, and amici curiae, we conclude that this declaratory-judgment action does not present a case "sufficient to invite judicial declaration of rights." Smith, supra. For that reason, we decline to answer the questions certified to this Court by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
QUESTIONS DECLINED.
MOORE, C.J., and HOUSTON, LYONS, BROWN, JOHNSTONE, WOODALL, and STUART, JJ., concur.
SEE, J., concurs in the result.