Opinion ID: 2605155
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Wisconsin Approach

Text: The first case in Wisconsin to deal with the public trust doctrine was Priewe v. Wisconsin State Land and Improvement Co., 93 Wis. 534, 67 N.W. 918 (1896). A promoter claimed title to land under Muskego Lake and obtained passage of a law which permitted him to drain it. The asserted justification for the law was that drainage was required for the preservation of public health. The defense claimed that a legislative determination of public purpose is conclusive on the judiciary. The Wisconsin court held that the final determination must be made by the judiciary. The court then struck down the statute as made for private purposes and for the sole benefit of private parties. Priewe involved a finding of fraudulent legislative purposes. The next two Wisconsin cases also involved proposals to drain wetlands for agricultural reclamation. An inquiry as to the proposals was made by a state commission and the report of the commission was before the court. In the first case, In re Trempealeau Drainage Dist. Merwin v. Houghton, 146 Wis. 398, 131 N.W. 838 (1911), the court held that the drainage scheme was within the appropriate bounds of legislative authority and therefore, valid. The court did concern itself with the effect on fishing and hunting and then concluded that although they would be somewhat impaired it did not amount to substantial infringement. The second case, In re Crawford County Levee & Drainage Dist. No. 1, 182 Wis. 404, 196 N.W. 874 (1924), involved a project to reclaim wetland that had been used for hunting and fishing. The state commission which authorized the drainage had made a finding that hunting, fishing and navigation would not be wholly destroyed. The court relied on the finding of not wholly destroyed and said that the report thus implied that there would be substantial destruction of those rights. The drainage was not allowed. The court held that navigable waters available to the whole public could never be converted to private farmland. In later cases this approach was held to be far too inflexible and the court thereafter sought to refine its approach. In City of Milwaukee v. State, 193 Wis. 423, 214 N.W. 820 (1927), the city made an exchange of land with a steel company in order to obtain shoreland for the development of the city's harbor. The court examined the broad impact of the transaction upon public uses in general and eschewed such narrow considerations as whether any particular acre would be lost to public recreation. The court addressed Crawford County and Priewe and distinguished them on the basis that in those cases consummation of the scheme would have materially affected the rights of the public to the navigable waters of the lakes, considering their size, depth, and the purposes for which they were primarily adapted. The court did not indicate that it would substitute its judgment for that of the legislature, but did imply that it would not approve any transaction in which broad public rights are set aside in favor of more limited or private rights, especially in the absence of persuasive justification for the transaction. In State v. Public Service Commission, 275 Wis. 112, 81 N.W.2d 71 (1957), the court was faced with the situation in which the city of Madison, which owned a park fronting a recreational lake wanted to fill part of a lagoon, fill a portion of the lake bed, use the field area for a parking lot, and enlarge a beach area. Suit was brought by the Attorney General who claimed that because navigation would be destroyed the fill violated the public trust doctrine. The court rejected this claim and adopted five criteria to aid in the determination of whether the public trust doctrine would be violated in a specific case. These criteria are: 1. Public bodies will control the use of the area. 2. The area will be devoted to public purposes and open to the public. 3. The diminution of lake area will be very small when compared with the whole of Lake Wingra. 4. No one of the public uses of the lake as a lake will be destroyed or greatly impaired. 5. The disappointment of those members of the public who may desire to boat, fish, or swim in the area to be filled is negligible when compared with the greater convenience to be afforded those members of the public who use the city park. 81 N.W.2d at 73. City of Madison v. State, 1 Wis.2d 252, 83 N.W.2d 674 (1957), concerned the filling of land to build an auditorium. The court expanded its doctrine and held that such use would enhance the other uses of the property. The court looked to conflict and compatibility between various uses rather than restricting its view to allow only water-related uses. We take the following guidance from the approach adopted by the Wisconsin court. Final determination whether the alienation or impairment of a public trust resource violates the public trust doctrine will be made by the judiciary. This is not to say that this court will supplant its judgment for that of the legislature or agency. However, it does mean that this court will take a close look at the action to determine if it complies with the public trust doctrine and it will not act merely as a rubber stamp for agency or legislative action. In making such a determination the court will examine, among other things, such factors as the degree of effect of the project on public trust uses, navigation, fishing, recreation and commerce; the impact of the individual project on the public trust resource; the impact of the individual project when examined cumulatively with existing impediments to full use of the public trust resource, i.e. in this instance the proportion of the lake taken up by docks, moorings or other impediments; the impact of the project on the public trust resource when that resource is examined in light of the primary purpose for which the resource is suited, i.e. commerce, navigation, fishing or recreation; and the degree to which broad public uses are set aside in favor of more limited or private ones.