Opinion ID: 2600008
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did the addition of land to the CID deprive the plaintiffs of property without due process of law?

Text: ¶ 19 Article I, section 3 of the Washington Constitution provides, No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. The plaintiffs claim that CID violated their right to due process twice: first when CID processed the add lands petitions pursuant to RCW 87.03.560, and second when CID later gave notice by publication of the add lands hearing held on March 6, 2007. [2] Plaintiffs argue persuasively that CID's informal procedures for validating petitions resulted in irregularities, including the acceptance of petitions that should not have been accepted. And article I, section 3 strongly disfavors notice by publication. See Wenatchee Reclamation Dist. v. Mustell, 102 Wash.2d 721, 725-26, 684 P.2d 1275 (1984). But the protections of article I, section 3 apply only when a person has a protected interest in life, liberty, or property and suffers a government deprivation of that interest. See, e.g., Wash. Fed'n of State Employees v. State, 127 Wash.2d 544, 558, 901 P.2d 1028 (1995); Port of Tacoma v. Parosa, 52 Wash.2d 181, 193, 324 P.2d 438 (1958). ¶ 20 Article I, section 3 protects plaintiffs' real property interests. The remaining question is whether a deprivation of their property interests occurred during the petition and the hearing phases of the add lands process.
¶ 21 A deprivation is a direct and adverse effect. Mustell, 102 Wash.2d at 725, 684 P.2d 1275. It is not a theoretical harm, nor is it an increased probability of harm. See Martinez v. California, 444 U.S. 277, 281, 100 S.Ct. 553, 62 L.Ed.2d 481 (1980). [3] An injury that is an indirect and incidental result of lawful government action does not amount to a deprivation. O'Bannon v. Town Court Nursing Ctr., 447 U.S. 773, 787, 100 S.Ct. 2467, 65 L.Ed.2d 506 (1980). Were it otherwise, the government would almost always be responsible for giving people notice and an opportunity to be heard before acting. ¶ 22 Even if a deprivation becomes more likely as a result of government action, due process does not apply if an actual deprivation is contingent on a subsequent action. This principle is illustrated by Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board, 156 Wash.2d 131, 124 P.3d 640 (2005). Chevron argued that it did not receive due process when the town of Woodway, without first notifying Chevron, designated Chevron's land in Snohomish County as a potential annexation area in accordance with the Growth Management Act, chapter 36.70A RCW. Chevron, 156 Wash.2d at 134-36, 124 P.3d 640. Woodway's designation of Chevron's land certainly made annexation more likely, and we acknowledged Woodway's action could have been direct because it uniquely targeted Chevron's land. Id. at 138, 124 P.3d 640. But Chevron's claim was contingent. Chevron used its property in the same way it always had, no annexation in fact occurred, and Chevron would have the opportunity to object at a later proceeding if Woodway chose finally to annex the property. Id. On these facts, Woodway did not have to give Chevron individual notice, because Chevron could not show how its property rights were actually affected. Id. ¶ 23 In another case where a deprivation was contingent on a subsequent action, Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County v. North American Foreign Trade Zone Industries, LLC (NAFTZI), 159 Wash.2d 555, 570-71, 151 P.3d 176 (2007), we held a landowner was not entitled to constitutional due process in a condemnation proceeding until the judicial hearing. It did not matter that a resolution authorizing condemnation was adopted at a public meeting before the judicial hearing, thus making condemnation more likely, because an adopted resolution does not result in a taking of property and does not deprive a property owner of any rights. Id. at 570, 151 P.3d 176. We recognized that [t]he actual condemnation action does not occur until the judicial hearing. Id at 571, 151 P.3d 176. Thus, at the initial stagethe public meetingthe landowners suffered no deprivation cognizable under the law of due process.
¶ 24 A special assessment is a charge imposed on property owners within a limited area to help pay the cost of a local improvement which specially benefits property within that area. Covell v. City of Seattle, 127 Wash.2d 874, 889, 905 P.2d 324 (1995). When the government constructs a public improvement, such as a road, a waterworks, or a park, the real properties nearest to the improvement can derive a benefit greater than the general public. Correspondingly, these properties increase in value. If the property receives a special benefit, the government may levy an assessment. If the property does not, an assessment would be a deprivation of property without due process of law. Heavens v. King County Rural Library Dist., 66 Wash.2d 558, 564, 404 P.2d 453 (1965). Because a special benefit is the linchpin of an assessment's constitutionality, the owner of property subject to an assessment has the right to a hearing addressing whether the improvement resulted, or will result, in a special benefit to the property. See Parosa, 52 Wash.2d at 193, 324 P.2d 438. There is a concomitant right to notice of the hearing. Id.
¶ 25 Applying the foregoing principles, we conclude the add lands process did not deprive the plaintiffs of property. Plaintiffs complain they were subjected to a procedure whereby an unavoidable assessment will be applied to their property. Br. of Appellants at 18. But plaintiffs do not argue that CID actually levied an assessment. In fact, CID claims its practice was to wait to assess properties until an LID was formed, and plaintiffs do not contest this claim. A change in CID policy was a theoretical possibility, not a deprivation in fact. As with the alleged deprivations in Chevron and NAFTZI, an assessment levied on plaintiffs' properties was contingent on a subsequent action, namely the formation of an LID. ¶ 26 Still, plaintiffs argue that due process was required because CID obtained the authority to levy an assessment on their lands. To accept plaintiffs' argument, we would have to redefine a deprivation to mean the status of being subject to government authority. Implicitly, plaintiffs ask us to define property rights to include the freedom from a government entity having the authority to levy an assessment, regardless of whether that authority is actually used. We can find no support for this premise. The government's obtainment of legal authority to tax and levy assessments cannot cause a deprivation of property; only the government's exercise of this authority can. Thus, at the add lands phase, any harm to plaintiffs' property interests was inchoate and outside the bounds of article I, section 3. Plaintiffs endured no deprivation, and this defect in the plaintiffs' due process argument is fatal to their claims. ¶ 27 We recognize that the courts in Drum v. University Place Water District, 144 Wash. 585, 258 P. 505 (1927) and Browning v. Hooper, 269 U.S. 396, 46 S.Ct. 141, 70 L.Ed. 330 (1926), struck down statutes permitting an LID to be formed by petition without notice to and a hearing for affected landowners. But the constitutional violation in both cases was the absence of notice and a hearing on the question of special benefits. In Drum, the plaintiffs' properties were added by petition to a water district even though they did not receive water service. 144 Wash. at 586, 258 P. 505. Plaintiffs were not entitled to notice or a hearing. Id. at 588, 258 P. 505. Similarly, in Browning, plaintiffs' properties were included by petition in a road improvement district. 269 U.S. at 400, 46 S.Ct. 141. The Browning Court suggested that no process would be due to landowners if a legislative body, as opposed to individual petitioners, had determined the question whether the properties would specially benefit from road improvements. Id. at 405, 46 S.Ct. 141. But it is essential to due process of law that such owners be given notice and opportunity to be heard on that question [of special benefits] where, as here, the district was not created by the Legislature, and there has been no legislative determination that their property will be benefited by the local improvement. Id. We agree that property owners have a right to have their property excluded if no benefit will result to it from the improvement. Parosa, 52 Wash.2d at 193, 324 P.2d 438 (emphasis added). But the constitutional defect in Drum and Browning was that the improvement districts sought to levy an assessment on the plaintiffs' properties without first giving them a hearing on the question of special benefits. Notice and a hearing are not required on the preliminary question of becoming a part of the district's territory. See 14 Eugene McQuillin, The Law of Municipal Corporations § 38:101, at 401-02 (3d rev. ed. 2008) (There is no constitutional requirement that property owners be given notice of the creation of an improvement district.). [4] ¶ 28 Because due process of law entitled plaintiffs in this case to a hearing on the question of whether their properties would derive a special benefit from local improvements operated by CID, the plaintiffs might have a stronger case if CID had levied an assessment without an additional proceeding. But CID's assessment of the Belmont properties was contingent on the subsequent LID proceeding. And constitutional due process means only that the owner of property must be given notice and an opportunity to be heard at some point before the government levies an assessment on the property. See Pratt v. Water Dist. No. 79, 58 Wash.2d 420, 423-24, 363 P.2d 816 (1961); 14 McQuillin, supra, § 38:101, at 391-94. Article I, section 3 does not prescribe the exact day and hour for notice and a hearing; this process is due simply before the assessments become irrevocably fixed, 14 McQuillin, supra, § 38:111, at 419-20, or prior to a conclusive judgment, id. § 38:102, at 404. ¶ 29 Due process does not entitle a property owner to notice and a hearing on the decisions leading up to the assessment. If notice and a hearing preceded every government action, government would be paralyzed. Government decision making is often a multistep process, with several intermittent stages between the start of the process and the final decision. It is not practicable or necessary for notice and hearing to accompany every stage. This understanding of due process can be found in the United States Supreme Court's application of the Fourteenth Amendment to special assessments. As Justice Cardozo wrote for the Court in Utley v. City of St. Petersburg, 292 U.S. 106, 109, 54 S.Ct. 593, 78 L.Ed. 1155 (1934), [t]here is no constitutional privilege to be heard in opposition at the launching of a project which may end in an assessment. In Utley, without notice or a hearing, the St. Petersburg, Florida city commission authorized construction of a street. Id. at 107-08, 54 S.Ct. 593. Over 16 months later, after the street construction project had been completed, the city commission published a notice and held a hearing on a plan to levy assessments on the properties adjacent to the street. Id. at 108, 54 S.Ct. 593. The Court concluded, It is enough that a hearing is permitted before the imposition of the assessment as a charge upon the land. Id. at 109, 54 S.Ct. 593. As Utley makes clear, notice and a hearing do not necessarily have to precede a legal authorization that sets in motion a chain of events that ends in an assessment. [5] ¶ 30 We recognize the plaintiffs were in a weaker tactical position at the LID phase than during the add lands process. Under RCW 87.03.485, to withhold consent for an LID, a majority of title holders must object, whereas under RCW 87.03.585, a single objection during the add lands process triggers a district-wide election. Consequently, the addition of the plaintiffs' lands to CID increased the likelihood that an LID would form, resulting in an assessment on their properties. Still, due process is not concerned with the increased likelihood of a deprivation, as Chevron and NAFTZI make plain. An increased probability of an assessment was not a deprivation of property within the meaning of article I, section 3. ¶ 31 And we cannot think of any notion of property that would justify us holding that this procedural setback is a deprivation of property. Any attempt to portray plaintiffs' procedural rights during the add lands process as a constitutionally protected property interest would be a radical change in the law of due process. See, e.g., Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238, 250-51, 103 S.Ct. 1741, 75 L.Ed.2d 813 (1983) (The State may choose to require procedures for reasons other than protection against deprivation of substantive rights, of course, but in making that choice the State does not create an independent substantive right. (footnote omitted)); Curtis Ambulance of Fla., Inc. v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 811 F.2d 1371, 1377 (10th Cir.1987) (Courts generally agree that no property interest exists in a procedure itself, without more.).
¶ 32 Other than providing plaintiffs notice and a hearing on the special benefits question at some point before levying an assessment, CID was obligated under article I, section 3 only to follow the law set forth by the legislature. A settled rule of due process is that a democratically elected legislature has the prerogative to establish the procedures by which a local government entity is created or its boundaries expanded. A person does not have the constitutional right to notice, a hearing, or the right to object. See, e.g., Parosa, 52 Wash.2d at 193, 324 P.2d 438 ([I]t is within the power of the legislature to authorize the inclusion of the property of nonconsenting owners.); Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh, 207 U.S. 161, 178-79, 28 S.Ct. 40, 52 L.Ed. 151 (1907) (The state... at its pleasure, may ... expand or contract the territorial area, unite the whole or a part of it with another municipality, ... with or without the consent of the citizens.); Cherry v. City of Hayti Heights, 563 S.W.2d 72, 87 (Mo.1978) ([T]he power to create a municipal corporation is a political function, resting solely in the legislative branch and not subject to due process requirements for notice.); Bd. of County Com'rs v. Sims, 252 Ind. 531, 535, 251 N.E.2d 9 (1969) ([T]he legislature has jurisdiction over all of its instrumentalities, including municipal corporations, and may abolish, alter or incorporate such instrumentalities as it sees fit in the performance of its legislative functions. The legislature is not required to give notice to anyone affected by its legislation.). The process due when a municipal corporation forms or expands is by the grace of the legislature, not by constitutional commandment. ¶ 33 In Parosa, a group of citizens claimed that the incorporation of a municipal corporation by petition deprived them of their property without due process of law. 52 Wash.2d at 192, 324 P.2d 438. They lamented that the petitioners for incorporation could set the boundaries arbitrarily, and the objecting citizens would have no process whereby they could exclude their land. Id. Rejecting their due process claim, we decided that when land is added to a municipal corporation's territory in accordance with a statute, [n]o question of due process is involved. Id. at 193, 324 P.2d 438. The statutory conditions by which a municipal corporation's boundaries are set are a political question, solely within the province of the legislature. Id. at 194, 324 P.2d 438. [6] ¶ 34 Consistent with Parosa, we hold that as long as the boundaries were set here in accordance with the pertinent statutes, article I, section 3 is satisfied. [I]t is not for this court to say what additional standards would be desirable. Parosa, 52 Wash.2d at 194, 324 P.2d 438. Plaintiffs do not argue that the notice published in the Tri-City Herald breached RCW 87.03.565, that the CID board's resolutions failed to comply with chapter 87.03 RCW, or that CID committed any other statutory violation-except for improperly validating some petitions. To that issue we now turn.