Opinion ID: 620822
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Bowers Case

Text: Before any decision was rendered on the first Citizens appeal, different claimants brought another suit in the district court in the Bowers case. The Bowers Plaintiffs are all Measure 37 claimants. They sued the Department of Conservation and Development Commission and Director Whitman, seeking damages and declaratory relief against enforcement of Measure 49. Bowers Plaintiffs alleged five causes of action, the first three of which remain at issue in this appeal. First, Bowers Plaintiffs alleged that there had been a taking of protected property in violation of the Fifth Amendment due process clause. Bowers Plaintiffs asserted that those property interests were statutory rights to monetary compensation, vested and accrued claim[s] for compensation, legal entitlements . . . in lieu of monetary compensation, or Measure 37 waivers and the entitlement to monetary compensation. Second, Bowers Plaintiffs alleged that Measure 49 violates equal protection guarantees under the Fourteenth Amendment. Third, Bowers Plaintiffs alleged that Measure 49 violates substantive due process under the 14th Amendment. After Bowers was filed, this court issued its opinion in the first Citizens appeal, holding that the Measure 37 waivers were not court judgments or contracts. Relying on our decision, the district court granted the motion for summary judgment in the Bowers case and dismissed the remaining claims against Whitman in an order and judgment. The Bowers appeal followed.