Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/maine/supreme-court/1989/557-a-2d-168-0.html
Timestamp: 2019-06-26 15:51:54
Document Index: 340155211

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1', '§ 571', '§ 571', '§ 573', '§ 21', '§ 573', '§ 5', '§ 63', '§ 571', '§ 571', '§ 572', '§ 573', '§ 1', '§ 2']

Bell v. Town of Wells :: 1989 :: Maine Supreme Judicial Court Decisions :: Maine Case Law :: Maine Law :: US Law :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Maine Case Law › Maine Supreme Judicial Court Decisions › 1989 › Bell v. Town of Wells
*169 McKUSICK, Chief Justice.
We agree with the Superior Court's declaration of the state of the legal title to Moody Beach. Long and firmly established rules of property law dictate that the plaintiff oceanfront owners at Moody Beach hold title in fee to the intertidal land subject to an easement, to be broadly construed, permitting public use only for fishing, fowling, and navigation (whether for recreation or business) and any other uses reasonably incidental or related thereto. Although contemporary public needs for recreation are clearly much broader, the courts and the legislature cannot simply alter these long-established property rights to accommodate new recreational needs; constitutional prohibitions on the taking of private property without compensation must be considered. On this basis we agree with the Superior Court's conclusion that the Public Trust in Intertidal Land Act, which declares an unlimited right in the public to use the intertidal land for "recreation," is unconstitutional. Finally, on the record in this case no public easement by local custom has been proven to exist at Moody Beach,[7] even assumingas need not be decided in this casethat in *170 Maine a public easement may be acquired over privately owned land by local custom.
The only open and continuous public use ... proved to exist in this case for the 20 years preceding the filing of this lawsuit ... was the public's (and the plaintiffs' for that matter) consistent habit of strolling up and down the length of Moody Beach. All of the plaintiffs testified that they were perfectly willing to permit this, never complained about it and would continue to permit this activity in the future. I. The Public Easement in the Privately Owned Intertidal Land Does Not Extend Beyond That Reserved in the Colonial Ordinance Broadly Construed A. The Upland Owner's Fee Title to Intertidal Land
On the first appeal in this case, we examined in detail the historical sources of the legal regime governing the ownership of intertidal land in Maine. Bell v. Town of Wells, 510 A.2d 509 (Me.1986) (Bell I).[8]*171 The elaborate legal and historical researches reflected in the extensive briefs filed with us on this second appeal fail to demonstrate any error in the conclusions we reached less than three years ago.
Barker v. Bates, 30 Mass. (13 Pick.) 255, 258 (1832) (Colonial Ordinance applies in territory of former Plymouth Colony).[10]See also Barrows v. McDermott, 73 Me. 441 (1882) (rule of property law derived from the Colonial Ordinance applies in Piscataquis County, even though originally a part of the Acadia Colony).
The pioneer Supreme Court opinion on coastal property rights, Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. 1, 14 S. Ct. 548, 38 L. Ed. 331 (1894), written by Justice Gray, formerly *172 Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, emphasizes the uniqueness of the Maine[11] and Massachusetts legal rule governing title to intertidal land or flats:
Id. at 18-19, 14 S. Ct. at 554-55 (citations omitted).
The brief of the amici curiae contends that the State of Maine on coming into the Union on separation from Massachusetts "obtained title to its intertidal lands under the `equal footing' doctrine,"[12] a doctrine that has been most recently discussed by the United States Supreme Court in Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mississippi, 484 U.S. 469, 108 S. Ct. 791, 98 L. Ed. 2d 877 (1988).[13] Any such revisionist view of history comes too late by at least 157 years. See Lapish v. Bangor Bank, 8 Me. at 93 (1831). Prior to separation the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had already granted to the upland owners fee title in the intertidal land within its entire territory including the District of Maine. Contrary to the amicus argument, there was nothing in the pre-1820 Massachusetts common law governing title to the intertidal zone that was repugnant to the constitution of the new State. As already noted, in absence of such repugnance, article X, section 3 of the Maine Constitution declared that all laws in force in the District of Maine in 1820 would remain in force in the new State. See n. 9 above. Furthermore, article X, section 5 of the new Maine Constitution declared:
See Massachusetts Act of Separation, Mass.Laws 1819, ch. 161, § 1 Seventh.[14] The Phillips Petroleum decision in 1988 in no way contradicts the plain and carefully explained decision in 1893 in Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. at 18-19, 14 S. Ct. at 554-55, that Massachusetts and Maine had much earlier exercised their statehood powers over their intertidal lands and had *173 adopted rules of real property law very different from those prevailing in many other states. 484 U.S. at ___, 108 S. Ct. at 799, 98 L. Ed. 2d at 890.
The Colonial Ordinance as received into the common law of Maine and Massachusetts reserved out of the fee title granted to the upland owner a public easement only for fishing, fowling, and navigation. We have held that the public may fish, fowl, or navigate on the privately owned land for pleasure as well as for business or sustenance, Barrows v. McDermott, 73 Me. at 449; and we have in other ways given a sympathetically generous interpretation to what is encompassed within the terms "fishing," "fowling," and "navigation," or reasonably incidental or related thereto. For example, the operator of a power boat for hire may pick up and land his passengers on the intertidal land, Andrews v. King, 124 Me. 361, 129 A. 298 (1925); and "navigation" also includes the right to travel over frozen waters, French v. Camp, 18 Me. 433 (1841), to moor vessels and discharge and take on cargo on intertidal land, State v. Wilson, 42 Me. at 24; and, after landing, "to pass freely to the lands and houses of others besides the owners of the flats," Deering v. Proprietors of Long Wharf, 25 Me. 51, 65 (1845). Similarly, we have broadly construed "fishing" to include digging for worms, State v. Lemar, 147 Me. 405, 87 A.2d 886 (1952), clams, State v. Leavitt, 105 Me. 76, 72 A. 875 (1909), and shellfish, Moulton v. Libbey, 37 Me. 472 (1854). We have never, however, decided a question of the scope of the intertidal public easement except by referring to the three specific public uses reserved in the Ordinance. The terms "fishing," "fowling," and "navigation," liberally interpreted,[16] delimit the public's right to use this privately owned land.
Plainly the general recreational easement claimed by the Town of Wells cannot be justified as encompassed within or reasonably related to fishing, fowling, or navigation. The Town of Wells does not attempt any such justification. Instead, it argues that the public rights of fishing, fowling, and navigation are not exclusive; that the *174 listing does not exhaust the public rights retained by the common law out of the property interest vested in the upland owner. The Town points to evidence of colonial use of beaches for swimming and football and other games. We do not find the Town's argument persuasive. By itself, the historical fact of recreational activities on privately owned land, whether intertidal or other land, says little as to who was engaging in those activities or what was the scope of any legal rights of the public to be there. Activities of an inconsequential and nonintrusive natureeven if they were in fact public activitiesmight well have had the acquiescence and participation of the private owners, as the Superior Court found was the case with regard to the modern-day strolling the length of Moody Beach. In any event, all the cases in Massachusetts and Maine recognizing the common law principles of intertidal property interests read the Colonial Ordinance as having restricted the reserved public easement to fishing, fowling, and navigation and related uses. For example, this court in Marshall v. Walker, 93 Me. at 536, 45 A. at 498, in declaring the nature of the jus publicum in the intertidal land as "the right of the public to use it for the purposes of navigation and of fishery,"[17] set forth only activities related to those specified uses in the following oft-quoted summary:
Maine has no reported case where a claim of a public easement for general recreation such as bathing, sunbathing, and walking on privately owned intertidal land has even been asserted. We cannot accept the argument of the Town of Wells that the absence of precise prior authority in Maine leaves it open for us to disregard the language of the Colonial Ordinance and to fashion a "no more burdensome" public easement that will meet the undoubted needs of modern society for more public recreational facilities. The absence of direct Maine authority is, at best for the Town, a neutral factor in our decision. Furthermore, we do have case authority squarely on point to guide us in deciding the question presented to us in Maine for the first time. Two Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court cases, decided in 1907 *175 and 1961, as well as the 1974 unanimous advisory opinion of its justices that is quoted above, have considered the exact question raised by this appeal and have ruled adversely to the claim now made by the Town of Wells.
A public easement for bathing, sunbathing, and recreational walking cannot be justified on the factual assumption that it is "no more burdensome" on the private landowner than the Colonial Ordinance easement for fishing, fowling, and navigation. To justify adding a further easement on the ground it is "no more burdensome" is on its face self-contradictory. No one suggests or could suggest that any such public easement for bathing, sunbathing, and recreational walking is to be substituted for the ancient easement. Fishing, fowling, and navigation remain important uses of the Maine coast. If the private landowner now has ten fishermen, fowlers, and boaters using his land, adding ten bathers, sunbathers, and walkers obviously *176 makes the aggregate public easement more burdensome. Furthermore, one would expect that a direct comparison of the magnitude of the relative burdens would show that at Moody Beach a substitution of bathers, sunbathers, and walkers for the fishermen, fowlers, and boaters using the beach would in fact result in a much greater burden upon the fee owner.
II. The Public Trust in Intertidal Land Act Constitutes an Unconstitutional Taking
The legislature, by enacting in 1986 the Public Trust in Intertidal Land Act, 12 M.R.S.A. §§ 571-573, declared that "the intertidal lands of the State are impressed with a public trust," id. § 571, and that those rights of the public include a "right to use intertidal land for recreation," id. § 573(1)(B).[19] The legislature thus imposed upon all intertidal land (defined by the Act in accordance with the Colonial Ordinance) an easement for use by the general public for "recreation" without limitation. The Superior Court held the Public Trust in Intertidal Land Act unconstitutional as a violation of the separation of powers provision of the Maine Constitution, art. III. We do not reach the separation of powers question because the Act takes for public *177 use much greater rights in the intertidal zone than are reserved by the common law and therefore the Act on its face constitutes an unconstitutional taking of private property. We agree therefore with the Superior Court that the Act is unconstitutional, but we ground our holding on the violation of the Takings Clauses of both the Maine and the United States Constitutions. See Me. Const. art. I, § 21; U.S. Const. amend. V.
The Public Trust in Intertidal Land Act in creating a public easement for "recreation" leaves that term both undefined and unlimitedwith the sole exceptions that the public recreation may not interfere with any structure or improvement lawfully maintained on intertidal land, nor may motorized vehicles other than watercraft be used there unless authorized by the State or municipality. See 12 M.R.S.A. § 573(2)(B), (D). The very nature of those exceptions emphasizes the all-inclusive recreational easement created by the Act over intertidal land owned in fee by the upland property holders. By its use of the unqualified term "recreation," the Act permits both individual and organized recreation of any form and nature. Members of the public in unrestricted numbers are thus given the right to come on this private property, not only for bathing, sunbathing, and walking as general recreation, but also for any other recreational activity whatever including, for example, ball games and athletic competitions, camping for extended hours, operation of vehicles (including even ATVs and other motorized vehicles, with State or municipal authorization), nighttime beach parties, and horseback riding. This comprehensive easement for public recreation sharply differs in nature and magnitude from the easement for fishing, fowling, and navigation and related uses that the common law alone reserved in favor of the public out of the fee ownership of intertidal land it at the same time vested in the upland owners. The Act thus constitutes a taking of private property for a public use. Since the Act provides no compensation for the landowners whose property is burdened by the general recreational easement taken for public use, it violates the prohibition contained in both our State and Federal Constitutions against the taking of private property for public use without just compensation.
The elusive border between the police power of the State and the prohibition against taking of property without compensation has been the subject of extensive litigation and commentary. See Bosselman, Callies & Banta, The Taking Issue (1973). But these difficulties need not concern us here. The permanent physical intrusion into the property of private persons, which the bill would establish, is a taking of property within even the most narrow construction of that phrase possible under the Constitutions of the Commonwealth and of the United States. It is true that the bill does not completely deprive private owners of all use of their seashore property in the sense that a formal taking does. But the case is readily distinguishable from such regulation as merely prohibits some particular use or uses which are harmful to the public. See Commonwealth v. Alger, 7 *178 Cush. 53, 86 (1851). The interference with private property here involves a wholesale denial of an owner's right to exclude the public. If a possessory interest in real property has any meaning at all it must include the general right to exclude others. Nichols, Eminent Domain (Rev. 3d ed.) § 5.1[1] (1970).
Michelman, Property, Utility, and Fairness: Comments on the Ethical Foundations of "Just Compensation" Law, 80 Harv.L.Rev. 1165, 1184 (1967) (emphasis in original). In Nollan v. California Coastal Comm'n, 483 U.S. 825, 107 S. Ct. 3141, 97 L. Ed. 2d 677 (1987), where California had conditioned a seaside building permit upon the private owners' "mak[ing] an easement across their beachfront available to the public on a permanent basis," the Court found an unconstitutional taking, however slight the adverse economic impact on the owners, saying:
Id. at 832, 107 S. Ct. at 3145, 97 L. Ed. 2d at 686. See also Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U.S. 419, 102 S. Ct. 3164, 73 L. Ed. 2d 868 (1982) (invalidating New York law prohibiting landlord from interfering with cable television facilities placed on his premises); Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U.S. 164, 100 S. Ct. 383, 62 L. Ed. 2d 332 (1979) (denying federal government's claim of public's right to navigate into a private pond opened to the sea by its owner in creating a marina).
The fact that the common law already has reserved to the public an easement in intertidal land for fishing, fowling, and navigation, and for related uses (even though the specific objects of that easement may be pursued for recreation as well as sustenance and profit) does not mean that the State can, without paying compensation to the private landowners, take in addition a public easement for general recreation.[21]See Opinion of the Justices, *179 365 Mass. 681, 313 N.E.2d 561. The common law has reserved to the public only a limited easement; the Public Trust in Intertidal Land Act takes a comprehensive easement for "recreation" without limitation. The absence of any compensation to the fee owners renders the Act unconstitutional.
III. The Town of Wells Has Failed to Prove a Public Easement Has Been Established by Local Custom in the Dry Sand Area or the Intertidal Land at Moody Beach
*180 Conclusion
Any attempt to fairly and justly resolve this important controversy is made more difficult by the need for an accurate and faithful reconstruction of the relevant aspects of more than 300 years of human activity and common law development. Rarely is there such a gap in the development of the law that a court confronts a significant issue of first impression concerning an ordinance enacted as long ago as 1641. My review of the relevant history, both social and legal, persuades me that the opinion of the Court does not accurately *181 define the public's right to use the Maine shore.
With the advantage of hindsight, it is now established beyond doubt that the determination of public and private rights in the intertidal land is fundamentally a matter of state law. This conclusion derives from the prevailing interpretation of the English common law regarding ownership of the intertidal lands.[2] Under that interpretation, the high water mark which were affected by the ebb and flow of the tides. E.g., Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. 1, 11, 14 S. Ct. 548, 552, 38 L. Ed. 331 (1894); Bell v. Wells, 510 A.2d 509, 511 (Me.1986); Barker v. Bates, 30 Mass. 255, 259 (1832); Blundell v. Catterall, 106 Eng.Rep. 1190, 1193 (1821). The king's ownership of those lands was qualified. The lands were thought "incapable of ordinary and private occupation, cultivation and improvement" and more appropriately devoted to public uses such as navigation, commerce, and fishing. Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. at 11, 14 S. Ct. at 552. The king's ownership of the intertidal lands was therefore of two types. He held the title, or jus privatum, absolutely. As sovereign he also held the public rights or jus publicum in trust for the benefit of the public. Id. Although the king possessed the power to convey the lands below the high water mark, any conveyance to a private individual was subject to the jus publicum. Id. at 13, 14 S. Ct. at 552.[3] Following the American Revolution, "the people of each state became themselves sovereign; and in that character hold the absolute right to all their navigable waters and the soils under them for their own common use, subject only to the rights since surrendered by the Constitution to the general government." Martin v. Lessee of Waddell, 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 367, 410, 10 L. Ed. 997 (1842). In a recent case, the Supreme Court of the United States restated the principle and held that the original thirteen states and all new states, upon entering the union, acquired title to all lands under waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tides. Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mississippi, 484 U.S. 469, 108 S. Ct. 791, 794-95, 98 L. Ed. 2d 877 (1988). As sovereign, those states, like the king hold the intertidal lands in trust for the public. E.g. Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mississippi, 108 S. Ct. at 794; Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. at 57, 14 S. Ct. at 569.
It is now certain that unless the common law has been modified, ownership of the intertidal lands lies in the state. It is also established "that the individual States have the authority to define the limits of the lands held in public trust and to recognize private rights in such lands as they see *182 fit." Phillips 108 S. Ct. at 794. The Massachusetts Bay Colony altered the common law regarding sovereign ownership by the enactment of a Colonial Ordinance and the subseqeunt adoption of that Ordinance as part of the common law. Maine entered the Union as part of the State of Massachusetts and, after achieving independent statehood purported to adopt the Massachusetts usage as part of the common law of Maine. The issue thus becomes: What change in the common law rights of the public has been wrought by the scheme of private ownership that arose from the Colonial Ordinance and the customary law resulting from that Ordinance?
Everie Inhabitant who is an hous-holder shall have free fishing and fowling, in any great Ponds, Bayes, Coves and Rivers so far as the Sea ebbs and flows, within the precincts of the town where they dwell, unles the Free-men of the same town, or the General Court have otherwise appropriated them. Provided that no town shall appropriated to any particular person or persons, any great Pond conteining more then ten acres of land: and that no man shall come upon anothers proprietie without their leave otherwise then as heerafter expressed; the which clearly to determin, it is declared that in all creeks, coves, and other places, about and upon salt water where the Sea ebbs and flows, the Proprietor of the land adjoyning shall have propriete to the low water mark where the Sea doth not ebb above a hundred rods, and not more wheresoever it ebs farther. Provided that such Proprietor shall not by this libertie have power to stop or hinder the passage of boats or other vessels in, or through any sea creeks, or coves to other mens houses or lands. And for great Ponds lying in common though within the bounds of some town, it shall be free for any man to fish and fowl there, and may passe and repasse *183 on foot through any mans propriete for that end, so they trespasse not upon any mans corn or meadow. [1641-1647]
Id. at 448. Although not explicitly noted, we relied upon the two elements classically *184 considered essential for the legal recognition of custom, namely, long-continuing usage and tacit consent or general agreement. See Schiller Custom in Classical Roman Law, 24 Va.L.Rev. 268, 272 (1937-1938). Stated accurately, Maine did not adopt the Ordinance but rather fashioned the law from the custom and usage that grew out of the Ordinance.[6] Although such a clear example of law developed from custom and usage is rare, the jurisprudential concept is of ancient origin. Julian, a classical jurist of the highest prestige describes the use of custom as a source of Roman law in the classical era (roughly 150 B.C. to 235 A.D.):
J. Dawson, The Oracles of the Law 128 (1968) (quoting Dig. 1.3.32 (Julianus, Dig. 94)). I conclude that the source of the law of private ownership of the Maine shore is this Court's recognition of usage and public acceptance. No deed of transfer or legislative grant created the existing scheme of private ownership, but rather the plaintiffs' ownership is derived exclusively from customary law. The public rights, on the other hand, existed at common law and predated the Ordinance and the custom of private ownership.[8] Accordingly, disputes concerning *185 previously undefined attributes of public rights and private ownership should be resolved by resort to the original sources, the common law and custom. As illustrated by the process of adopting the Colonial Ordinance in Maine, custom is an unwieldy source of law. Obvious difficulties are involved in documenting and proving the dynamic process of public usage and acceptance. Even once established, however, custom is rarely sufficiently comprehensive to resolve all areas of conflict and dispute. The present case is no exception.
The substantial nature of the interest accorded to the littoral owner is illustrated by this Court's decision in Sawyer v. Beal, 97 Me. 356, 54 A. 848 (1903). In that case, the plaintiff, littoral owner brought suit to recover a statutorily prescribed penalty under R.S. ch. 3, § 63 (1885). That statute prohibited the erection of fish weirs or wharves in tide water "in front of the shore or flats" of the riparian owner.[10]*186 The precise issue was the construction of the phrase "in front of the shore or flats." The Court analyzed the issue with reference to the purpose of the statute which was to protect the rights of the littoral owner and concluded that the statute prohibited fish weirs which were "so near the shore of another as to injure or injuriously affect the latter in the enjoyment of his rights as such owner ...." Id. at 358, 54 A. at 848. The Court stressed the fact that the statute created no new rights in the owner. Rather its purpose was to "extend to him additional protection" in the enjoyment of his existing rights, and to provide him with a means of redressing non trespassory interferences with the "use and enjoyment of his land." Id., 54 A. at 848. In this case we described the right of the littoral owner as follows: "Within the limits of his ownership he has all the exclusive rights of an owner." Id., 97 Me. at 358, 54 A. at 848.
*187 This Court summed up the public rights in the intertidal flats at the beginning of this century in Marshall v. Walker, 93 Me. 532, 45 A. 497 (1900). The public "may sail over them, may moor their craft upon them, may allow their vessels to rest upon the soil when bare, may land and walk upon them, may ride or skate over them when covered with water bearing ice, may fish in the water over them, [and] may dig shell fish in them ...." Id. at 536-37, 45 A. at 498.[12]
This Court has imposed limitations on the right of the public to use the intertidal flats for certain purposes. Significantly, however, we have not held, nor even suggested, that the scheme of ownership established by the Ordinance precludes the public from using the intertidal zone for common recreational beach activities. In Moore v. Griffin, 22 Me. 350 (1843), this Court held that "[n]either the ordinance nor the common law would authorize the taking of `muscle-bed (sic) manure' from the land of another person." Id. at 356. The plaintiff in Moore brought an action in trespass quare clausum against defendant for entry upon his river flats between high and low water mark and removal of six gondola loads of mussel-bed manure. The Court rejected the defendant's contention that the Ordinance reserves not only the rights of fishing and fowling but also permits taking sand, sea manure and ballast, as a right of soil in the flats. Rather, the Court held: "No such practice can be recognized as depriving the legal owner of his rights according to his title, unless supported by proof, that would establish a common right. The language of the reservation in the ordinance cannot be extended beyond the obvious meaning of the words fishing and fowling." Id. The decision in Moore was approved more than forty years later by this Court in King v. Young, 76 Me. 76 (1884).
In addition to prohibiting the taking of certain substances from the flats, we have also prohibited the deposit of substances on the flats. For example, in McFadden v. Haynes and DeWitt Ice Co., 86 Me. 319, 29 A. 1068 (1894), this Court held that the defendant ice company, a member of the public, had no right to deposit snow upon the plaintiff's flats between high and low watermark. The defendant argued that since a fisherman had the right to engage in certain activities on the flats such as *188 anchoring his boat there or placing an ice boat or hut on the frozen surface, "an ice-cutter, by analogy, should be allowed temporarily to encumber another's flats with snow scraped from his ice." Id. at 324, 29 A. at 1069. We disagreed, however, and took a more restrictive view of the public's right to encumber the flat.
In 1925, when this Court decided Andrews, we expanded the right of navigation and in doing so we noted that plaintiff's flats had been used as a landing place for fifty years. Andrews v. King, 124 Me. at 364, 129 A. 298. We rejected a rigid application of the terms of the Ordinance and resorted to contemporary notions of usage and public acceptance in order to strike a rational and fair balance between private ownership and public rights. Similarly, in the present controversy we should consider current notions of usage and public acceptance. Although the practice of fishing, fowling and navigation, as classically defined, may have become less important, other recreational uses have developed and received public acceptance within the past sixty years. I am persuaded that this Court and the Superior Court erred in arresting further development in the law by effectively confining public rights to those that had been recognized prior to 1925. Although we must avoid placing any additional burden upon the shoreowner, there is no reason to confine, nor have we in the past confined, the rights of the public strictly to the usage prevailing in the 17th Century. Neither reason nor logic supports the necessary and unfortunate conclusion flowing from this Court's analysis; namely, that the common law rights of the *189 public would be extinguished if fishing, fowling, and navigation were no longer practiced. When the necessities of the 17th Century disappear and the emphasis moves from those historic activities to other uses no more burdensome, the common law rights of the public should remain vital. The citizens of Maine are still in need of sustenance, albeit, in a different form.
The genius of the common law has been its ability to adapt legal doctrine to changing needs and circumstances. As we noted long ago: "The common law would ill deserve its familiar panegyric as the `perfection of human reason' if it did not expand with the progress of society and develop with new ideas of right and justice." In re Robinson, 88 Me. 17, 23, 33 A. 652, 654 (1895). The increased importance of recreational use of the shore is evident. The power of the Maine coast to restore body and mind is well known. The Maine Legislature has specifically recognized that "recreational uses are among the most important to the Maine people today who use intertidal land for relaxation from the pressures of modern life and for enjoyment of nature's beauty." 12 M.R.S.A. § 571 (Supp.1987-1988). Such a public resource is not, and never has been, the subject of exclusive ownership. I firmly believe that it is primarily the intensity of the modern use rather than the nature of the use that provides the impetus for this litigation. Given similar degrees of intensity of use, one would imagine that a shoreowner might prefer the presence of sunbathers, swimmers and strollers over fowlers and fishermen. Further, as has been suggested elsewhere, the narrow view adopted by the Court today results in absurd and easily thwarted distinctions between permissible and impermissible activities:
*190 Constitutionality of the Public Trust in Intertidal Land Act
§ 571. Legislative findings and purpose The Legislature finds and declares that the intertidal lands of the State are impressed with a public trust and that the State is responsible for protection of the public's interest in this land. The Legislature further finds and declares that this public trust is part of the common law of Maine and generally derived from the practices, conditions and needs in Maine, from English Common Law and from the Massachusetts Colonial Ordinance of 1641-47. The public trust is an evolving doctrine reflective of the customs, traditions, heritage and habits of the Maine people. In Maine, the doctrine has diverged from the laws of England and Massachusetts. The public trust encompasses those uses of intertidal land essential to the health and welfare of the Maine people, which uses include, but are not limited to, fishing, fowling, navigation, use as a footway between points along the shore and use for recreational purposes. These recreational uses are among the most important to the Maine people today who use intertidal land for relaxation from the pressures of modern society and for enjoyment of nature's beauty. The Legislature further finds and declares that the protection of the public uses referred to in this chapter is of great public interest and grave concern to the State. § 572. Definitions As used in this chapter, the term "intertidal land" means all land of this State affected by the tides between the mean high watermark and either 100 rods seaward from the high watermark or the mean low watermark, whichever is closer to the mean high watermark. § 573. Public trust rights in intertidal land 1. Public trust rights. The public trust rights in intertidal land include the following: A. The right to use intertidal land for fishing, fowling and navigation; B. The right to use intertidal land for recreation; and C. Any other trust rights to use intertidal land recognized by the Maine common law and not specifically abrogated by statute. 2. Limitations. The rights described in subsection 1 do not include: A. The removal from the intertidal land of any sand, soil, rocks or other minerals; B. Interference with any structure, development or improvement erected or maintained on intertidal land in accordance with the laws of this State; C. The depositing of any refuse or waste on intertidal land or in the water covering intertidal land; or D. Use or operation of motorized vehicles other than navigable watercraft, unless specifically authorized by state law or municipal ordinance. 3. Police Powers. Municipalities shall have jurisdiction to exercise their police powers to control public use of intertidal land, except where such exercise is superseded by any state law. 4. Other public rights. This chapter does not affect public rights in intertidal land arising from custom, prescription, implied dedication, acquiescence or any other source. This chapter does not affect public rights in dry sand areas upland from intertidal land arising from custom, prescription, implied dedication, acquiescence, the public trust doctrine or any other source.
The Superior Court held that the Public Trust in Intertidal Land Act violates the separation of powers provision of the Maine Constitution. Without addressing *191 the Superior Court's ruling, this Court now holds that the Act is unconstitutional because it constitutes a taking of private property. Because, in my view, the public common law rights in the intertidal lands includes recreational uses, the Act merely declares the common law[15] and there is no taking of property. The statute, however, does contain provisions that may constitute an addition to existing common law, i.e., provisions declaring that intertidal lands are the subject of a public trust and that the State is trustee of those public rights. Accordingly, my analysis requires a review of the Superior Court's holding that the Act violated the separation of powers provision of the Maine Constitution.
The Superior Court acknowledged the authority of the Legislature to "codify, alter, or abrogate" the common law but maintained that it must do so by making new law rather than by interpreting existing law. Construing our opinion in Bell v. Wells I as holding that the State is not a trustee of the public rights, the court found that the contrary legislative interpretation encroached upon the authority of the judiciary. Under the Maine Constitution, governmental powers are "divided into three distinct departments, the legislative, executive and judicial." Me. Const. art. III, § 1. The separation of powers provision provides that "[n]o person or persons, belonging to one of these departments, shall exercise any of the powers properly belonging to either of the others." Id. § 2. Because the rule of separation of powers is explicit in the Maine Constitution, the principle is more strictly construed than in the federal system where the rule is only implicit. State v. Hunter, 447 A.2d 797, 799 (Me.1982). The inquiry is whether the particular power has been "explicitly granted to one branch of state government, and to no other branch. If so, article III, section 2 forbids another branch to exercise that power." Id. at 800. As we have explained, the question is similar to the one posed by the federal courts in evaluating whether an issue is a non-justiciable political question namely, "whether there is a `textually demonstrable constitutional commitment' of the issue to another branch of the government." Id. n. 4 (quoting Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 217, 82 S. Ct. 691, 710, 7 L. Ed. 2d 663 (1962)).
Although the Maine Constitution does not define the parameters of the judicial power, the opinions of this Court provide guidance. The essence of the judicial power, as distinguished from the legislative, is its focus on resolving specific controversies between particular parties in litigation. In Lewis v. Webb, 3 Me. 326 (1825), we held that a legislative resolve granting to a particular litigant the right to appeal a decree of the probate court was an improper exercise of the judicial power by the Legislature. "It is one of the striking and peculiar features of judicial power that it is displayed in the decision of controversies between contending parties; the settlement of their rights and redress of their wrongs." Id. at 332.[16] By contrast, a proper exercise of legislative power "must in its nature be general and prospective; a rule for all, and binding on all. It is the province of the legislature to make and establish laws; and it is the province and *192 duty of judges to expound and apply them." Id. at 333. Because the Legislature in Lewis had conferred upon an individual litigant a right particular to him alone, it had encroached upon the judicial power.
Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U.S. 1, 19, 14 S. Ct. 548, 555 (1984) (emphasis added).
[18] Much earlier in Maine we had held that the lands of the oceanfront owner may be increased by natural accretion. See King v. Young, 76 Me. 76 (1884).
[21] The principle that a state, under the guise of interpreting its common law, cannot sanction a physical invasion of the property of another, is in no way vitiated by the Supreme Court's holding in Prune Yard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 100 S. Ct. 2035, 64 L. Ed. 2d 741 (1980), that the California Supreme Court's construction of the California Constitution's free speech clause did not perpetrate a taking. The California court had held that individuals seeking to distribute pamphlets in a privately owned shopping center continued to enjoy "public forum" access rights under the state constitution even though the public forum doctrine under the First Amendment enunciated in Amalgamated Food Employees v. Logan Valley Plaza, Inc., 391 U.S. 308, 88 S. Ct. 1601, 20 L. Ed. 2d 603 (1968), had been curtailed by Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551, 92 S. Ct. 2219, 33 L. Ed. 2d 131 (1972). Quoting the California court, the Supreme Court in Prune Yard stated: "It bears repeated emphasis that we do not have under consideration the property or privacy rights of an individual homeowner or the proprietor of a modest retail establishment. As a result of advertising and the lure of a congenial environment, 25,000 persons are induced [by the commercial property owner] to congregate daily...." 447 U.S. at 78, 100 S. Ct. at 2039. The decision affirmed in Prune Yard granted no easement or other inherent right of access to the public or to any individual; it merely regulated the terms under which the property owner could lawfully permit selective public access.
Second, every custom is limited in its application. It does not apply to the generality of citizens, but only to a particular class of persons or to a particular place. Although it must always govern a plurality of persons for there is no such thing as a custom inherent only in one personthe plurality must be restricted.
These two rules really amount to stating the same proposition in two different ways. A custom applying to all the Queen's subjects is not truly a custom at all in the legal sense, for, as Coke says, `that is the common law'. C. Allen, Law in the Making 130 (7th ed.1964) (emphasis in the original).