Source: http://www.lawlink.com/research/CaseLevel3/58150
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 15:46:38+00:00

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SALMON TROLLERS MARKETING ASSOCIATION, INC., et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. E. C. FULLERTON, as Director, etc., Defendant and Appellant.
George Deukmejian, Attorney General, R. H. Connett, Assistant Attorney General, and Denis D. Smaage, Deputy Attorney General, for Defendant and Appellant.
James L. Larson for Plaintiffs and Respondents.
This is an appeal by the Director of Fish and Game of the State of California, E. C. Fullerton (Director), from a judgment granting a writ of mandate and an injunction, issued by the Superior Court of Mendocino County in favor of Salmon Trollers Marketing Association, Inc., which consists of commercial salmon fishermen licensed to fish in the territorial waters of California. The Director had closed the commercial salmon fishing season for short terms during 1980, by emergency regulations adopted upon the authority of Fish and Game Code, section 7652. The trial court invalidated the emergency closures on the ground that section 7652 was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the Director.
For the reasons set forth, we find that section 7652 of the California Fish and Game Code is valid and constitutional as enacted and applied. Therefore we reverse.
On May 28, 1980, Director responded to the federal regulations by filing emergency regulations prefaced by a statement of "specific facts constituting the need for immediate action" (Gov. Code, ? 11346.1) which recited in part: "Drought conditions in 1976 and 1977 reduced the survival of juvenile salmon produced in those years. Adult salmon populations available to the 1980 fisheries will be depressed. In order to assure adequate numbers of spawning fish, fishing effort in 1980 must be reduced. Specific regulations to achieve the required resource protection are contained in the "Proposed Plan for Managing the 1980 Salmon Fisheries off the Coasts of California, Oregon and Washington," prepared by the Pacific Fishery Management Council. [?] Pursuant to Section 7652 of the Fish and Game Code, the following [124 Cal.App.3d 298] commercial salmon fishing regulation changes for the 1980 season are necessary to conform California laws to those adopted by the Pacific Fishery Management Council and approved by the Secretary of Commerce."
On June 20, 1980, plaintiff Salmon Trollers Marketing Association (hereinafter Salmon Trollers) sought injunctive and declaratory relief and a peremptory writ of mandate. After hearing, the superior court granted a peremptory writ of mandate and an injunction ordering the Director to annul and rescind the regulations and enjoining the Director from enforcing them.
The Director contends on appeal that the issuance of the emergency regulations and closure of the salmon fishing season was constitutional and valid pursuant to the enactment of Fish and Game Code sections 7650 to 7653. Respondent Salmon Trollers contends that section 7652 constitutes an unlawful delegation of legislative power and fails to afford substantive due process to Salmon Trollers.
By their own terms the California emergency regulations expired by the end of September 1980. The Salmon Trollers moved to dismiss this appeal as moot. The Director opposed the motion on the ground that the question of the validity of section 7652 will recur and is of substantial public interest.  "It is now established law that where ... issues on appeal affect the general public interest and the future rights of the parties, and there is reasonable probability that the same questions will again be litigated and appealed, an appellate court may, although the appeal be subject to dismissal, nevertheless adjudicate the issues involved." (People v. West Coast Shows, Inc. (1970) 10 Cal.App.3d 462, 468 [89 Cal.Rptr. 290].) This court denied Salmon Trollers' motion to dismiss.
[2b] Reviewing sections 7650-7653, it is clear that adequate standards are set forth to guide the Director as he implements the basic policy decision already made by the Legislature. It is legislative judgment that the state shall fully cooperate and assist in the formulation of fishery management plans adopted by the council. A basic policy determination has also been made to support the fishery management plan once adopted by the council. This support is to be carried out by the Director, when necessary, by suspending inconsistent statutes or regulations temporarily and adopting consistent regulations effective up to 180 days only. In the meantime, the Legislature clearly intends to consider conforming California statutory law to fishery management plans adopted by the council (Fish & G. Code, ? 7653), based on the Director's report to the Legislature as to which statutes should be amended, repealed or adopted. (Fish & G. Code, ? 7653.) A lasting and underlying policy decision is that the Legislature has determined to continue state jurisdiction over its fisheries within three miles offshore by avoiding conflict with the federal fishery plan. (Fish & G. Code, ? 7652.) These are fundamental policy determinations made by the Legislature and not by the Director of Fish and Game.
The Director is given the task of carrying out this policy by formulating fishery plans in cooperation with the Pacific Fishery Management Council. The Director is also instructed to temporarily conform state statutes if necessary to avoid a substantial adverse impact on the Pacific Fishery Management Council's plan. These are tasks of a type usually left in the hands of administrators. Formulating a fishery management [124 Cal.App.3d 301] plan requires expertise, biological data collection and evaluation, and consultation with the commercial fishing industry. The Legislature may properly delegate these duties to an administrator. A determination that a particular state statute will or will not have substantial adverse effect on a federal fishery plan requires biological expertise, experience in the peculiar problems of fishery law enforcement, and an understanding of marketing practices. The Legislature has set out the basic policy guidelines. The standards are clear.
In Kugler an ordinance of the City of Alhambra, which sets the salaries of firemen to be not less than those for the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles, was challenged. The Supreme Court upheld the ordinance against a challenge of invalid delegation of legislative power, stating: "The criteria set up by the proposed enactment reasonably relate to the fulfillment of the legislative purposes. If an external private or governmental body will be involved in the application of the legislative scheme, it must be an agency that the Legislature can expect will reasonably perform its function. If, for instance, the statute provides that salaries are to be adjusted to future changes in the cost of living, the legislation must designate a body, such as the United States Department of Labor, which may be expected to reasonably perform the function of ascertaining the cost of living ...." (Kugler v. Yocum, supra, at p. 382; italics added.) Here, to the extent that decisions of the Federal Pacific Fishery Management Council will necessarily influence the Director's decisions, it is clear that the Pacific Fishery Management Council can be expected reasonably to perform its function.
 As a general rule regulations enacted by an agency exercising delegated powers "must conform to the legislative will if we are to preserve an orderly system of government" (Morris v. Williams (1967) 67 Cal.2d 733, 737 [63 Cal.Rptr. 689, 433 P.2d 697]) and hence, for example, may not validly conflict with the enabling statute (Gov. Code, ? 11342.2). But several California cases make clear that if it is the "legislative [124 Cal.App.3d 302] will" that an agency have power to render legislative acts inoperative in one sense or another, such delegation will be valid so long as the usual conditions of valid delegation--retention of control over "fundamental policy decisions" and appropriate standards and safeguards for exercise of the delegated power--are met. Given a clear legislative articulation of fundamental policy and appropriate standards and safeguards it has been held that the Legislature may validly delegate authority to determine whether and where a statutory regulatory plan should go into effect (Ray v. Parker (1940) 15 Cal.2d 275, 284-286 [101 P.2d 665]; Jersey Maid Milk Products Co. v. Brock (1939) 13 Cal.2d 620, 641-644 [91 P.2d 577]; Dept. Pub. Health v. Board of Supervisors (1959) 171 Cal.App.2d 99, 104-105 [339 P.2d 884]) or to delay the effective date of statutory provisions enacted by the Legislature on an urgency basis to protect the public health (Clean Air Constituency v. California State Air Resources Bd. (1974) 11 Cal.3d 801, 816-819 [114 Cal.Rptr. 577, 523 P.2d 617]).
Salmon Trollers contends that the procedure set forth in section 7710 of the Fish and Game Code was controlling in this case. Section 7710 [124 Cal.App.3d 303] was enacted in 1974, two years prior to the adoption of the Federal Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, and two years prior to the California legislation in response to the federal act, which is here challenged. The fact that the Director has other regulatory powers under other statutes does not affect the validity of the statutory scheme set forth in article 1.5, sections 7650-7653, Fish and Game Code.
 Salmon Trollers suggests that sections 7650-7653 are invalid because they contain no provision for public hearing. But clearly the Director's rule-making function is subject to the broad provisions of the Government Code chapter establishing an Office of Administrative Law. (Gov. Code, ?? 11340-11351; cf. Gov. Code, ?? 11342, 11343, 11346.1.) The record shows that an adequate declaration of emergency was made and that time restraints required immediate action in order to comply with the legislative mandate of section 7652. No hearing is required prior to the adoption of emergency regulations. (Gov. Code, ? 11346.1.) The requirement of a later confirmation hearing became moot when the Director was compelled to withdraw the regulation by the trial court's writ of mandate.
The court below did not make a determination whether an emergency existed and based its ruling solely on its determination that section 7652 was unconstitutional. Thus, whether an emergency existed is not an issue on this appeal. Furthermore, no purpose would be served at this time by remanding the cause to the trial court for determination of whether a sufficient factual basis existed in 1980 for the exercise of emergency powers. The 1980 emergency regulations have by their own terms now expired and any future regulation would be based on facts existing at the time of its adoption.
In support of its substantive due process argument, Salmon Trollers contends that "[t]he director's construction of Section 7652 as mandating the enactment of whatever federal regulatory fishery management scheme might thereafter be enacted, however unwise or unsupported by evidence sufficient to meet the requirements of section 7710 of the Fish and Game Code, combined with his use of emergency powers herein, deprived petitioners of substantive due process in exposing them to arbitrary administrative action carried out under an unlawful delegation of legislative power."
What the Director might or might not have thought or done in arriving at the conclusion that he should suspend the salmon season is not [124 Cal.App.3d 304] before this court. The question is whether the statute on its face afforded sufficient standards and safeguards.  "Substantive due process ... deals with protection from arbitrary legislative action, even though the person whom it is sought to deprive of his right to life, liberty or property is afforded the fairest of procedural safeguards. In substantive law such deprivation is supportable only if the conduct from which the deprivation flows is prescribed by reasonable legislation reasonably applied, i.e., the law must not be unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious but must have a real and substantial relation to the object sought to be attained." (Gray v. Whitmore (1971) 17 Cal.App.3d 1, 21 [94 Cal.Rptr. 904]; cf. 5 Witkin, Summary of Cal. Law (8th ed. 1974) Constitutional Law, ? 279, pp. 3569-3570.) It is said that "[i]ndefiniteness in statutory terminology may be tested as an invalid delegation of power as well as a denial of due process." (Wotton v. Bush (1953) 41 Cal.2d 460, 468 [261 P.2d 256].) But here the standard of definiteness would be the same under either test; if section 7652 is constitutional under a delegation analysis it also affords substantive due process.
Salmon Trollers' contention that under section 7652, as contrasted to section 7710, they were denied a public hearing at which they might have presented evidence to demonstrate that there was no emergency and that no closure was required misconceives the issue. Section 7652 adequately incorporates the administrative rule-making provisions of the Government Code, which in turn gave Salmon Trollers various ways to be heard. Salmon Trollers chose judicial review and obtained a hearing but then elected not to submit evidence. They had an adequate opportunity to be heard under section 7652 and the extent of the hearing was determined by their election. They should not now complain.
We conclude that Fish and Game Code section 7652 offends neither the separation of powers clause nor the due process clause.
?FN 3. Article III, section 3, provides: "The powers of state government are legislative, executive, and judicial. Persons charged with the exercise of one power may not exercise either of the others except as permitted by this Constitution."

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