Opinion ID: 2067367
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Subject Matter of the Amendment

Text: The historical background concerning the legal status of tidelands is described in detail in the Appellate Division opinion, 187 N.J. Super. at 227-32, and need not be repeated here. The crucial underlying historical fact is that the State owned all land below the mean high water mark on tidally flowed property. O'Neill v. State Hwy. Dep't, 50 N.J. 307, 323 (1967). Upland is land above mean high water. City of Newark v. Natural Resource Comn., 133 N.J. Super. 245, 252 (Law Div. 1974), aff'd, 148 N.J. Super. 297 (App.Div. 1977). Interior land that the mean high tide did not reach was not tideland. 50 N.J. at 324. The State could not acquire interior land artificially, such as by constructing ditches that divert the tide onto lands otherwise unflowed. Nor could the riparian owner, generally speaking, [4] enlarge his holdings by excluding the tide. Ibid. It was the need to unravel the artificial changes and to determine the legal status of the land that motivated this Court to suggest in O'Neill that the appropriate officers of the State should do what is feasible to catalogue the State's far flung holdings. 50 N.J. at 320. O'Neill pertained to land in the Hackensack meadowlands and attention focused on cataloguing the State's ownership claims in the meadowlands. The legislative response to O'Neill was enactment of N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.1 to -13.6. Title 13 required that the Council undertake title studies and surveys of meadowlands throughout the State to determine and certify those lands which it finds are State owned lands. N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.2. Meadowlands are defined as those lands, now or formerly consisting chiefly of salt water swamps, meadows or marshes. N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.1(a). The statute also states that [i]mproved meadowlands means those reclaimed by fill or other material and may include structures. N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.1(b). Virgin meadowlands are defined to be those in their natural state. N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.1(c). Nowhere in the operative sections of the statute is any reference made to improved or virgin meadowlands. The Council is directed to publish a map clearly indicating those lands designated ... as State-owned lands. N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.4. Copies are to be filed with the Secretary of State and the clerks of the counties and municipalities wherein the land lies. Ibid. A list of the parcels is to be published in a newspaper circulating in the relevant county. Ibid. Aggrieved parties can lodge objections and file pertinent information with the Council, which in turn would review its prior determination. Aggrieved parties have the right to institute suits to quiet title. N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.5. The Council also has the authority to sell or lease the State's interest in the meadowlands, N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.7, the net proceeds to be paid into the Fund for the Support of Free Public Schools, N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.13. The mapping statute originally provided that the studies and title surveys be completed on or before December 31, 1974. L. 1968, c. 404, § 92. This was extended to December 31, 1977, L. 1975, c. 288, § 1, and to December 31, 1980, L. 1978, c. 44, § 1. Part of the delay was due to the litigation involving the mapping techniques used by the State. See City of Newark v. Natural Resource Coun., 133 N.J. Super. 245 (Law Div. 1974), aff'd, 148 N.J. Super. 297 (App.Div.), certif. granted and matter summarily remanded for clarification of opinion, 75 N.J. 32, clarified and aff'd, 152 N.J. Super. 458 (App.Div. 1977), aff'd, 82 N.J. 530, cert. den., 449 U.S. 983, 101 S.Ct. 400, 66 L.Ed. 2d 245 (1980) (for a description of this litigation). The unambiguous statutory language limits the scope of cataloguing to meadowlands throughout the State. N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.2. It may be observed that the statute required that the first survey be made of the Hackensack meadowlands. Ibid. We agree with the dissenting opinion of the Appellate Division that the statute was intended to apply only to meadowlands and not to other tidelands. 187 N.J. Super. at 258; see id. 258-59 (describing the history of N.J.S.A. 13:1B-13.1 to -13.6). [5] The mapping statute covered all meadowlands throughout the State, whether or not they had been affected by artificial conditions, and did not extend to non-meadowlands tideland properties. Although Title 13 required that the State examine only the meadowlands, the State decided to investigate all tidal properties in which it might have an interest. N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, Administrative Order No. 34 (July 26, 1973). O'Neill alerted the State and property owners of lands abutting the ocean, rivers and bays of the possibility of the State's interest in these properties. The uncertainties of the legal status of upland properties were manifest. If the upland condition had been artifically created by an impermissible method, ownership of the land might be in the State. Borough of Wildwood Crest v. Masciarella, 51 N.J. 352, 357 (1968); Garrett v. State, 118 N.J. Super. 594, 600 (Ch.Div. 1972). The constitutional Amendment was addressed to these concerns. [6] The Amendment was an attempt to ameliorate these anxieties and expedite resolution of title disputes. At the joint hearing of the Senate and General Assembly committees held pursuant to article IX, paragraph 1 of the Constitution to consider whether the Amendment should be submitted to the people, Senator Perskie, who presided and was a sponsor of the resolution, stated that the proposed Amendment would provide, in effect, a statute of limitations within which the State would have a right to define and to assert the riparian rights.... . [T]his proposed amendment is not designed and would not have the effect of depriving the State of any riparian claim to that which the Constitution entitles the State. It simply provides a time frame within which any such claim may be defined and asserted after a given piece of ground would cease to be tidal flowed. [ Public Hearings before Senate Judiciary Committee and Assembly Judiciary, Law, Public Safety and Defense Committee on ACR-3037 and SCR-3023 1 (June 5, 1981)] The Administration opposed the adoption of the resolution authorizing submission of the Amendment to the electorate. Richard McManus, Associate Counsel to the Governor, stated at the public hearing that [t]he period provided in the amendments is much too brief a period for the State to complete its work. Id. at 2. Judith Yaskin, First Assistant Attorney General, asserted there that though mapping of the entire state had been proceeding for the past ten years, a year and a half would not be sufficient time to complete the mapping. Id. at 5. She claimed the Legislature had not provided sufficient money or manpower. Id. at 17. Despite the opposition, three fifths of all members of the Senate and Assembly agreed to submit the Amendment to the people. The Amendment, adopted in the general election of November 3, 1981, reads as follows: No lands that were formerly tidal flowed, but which have not been tidal flowed at any time for a period of 40 years, shall be deemed riparian lands, or lands subject to a riparian claim, and the passage of that period shall be a good and sufficient bar to any such claim, unless during that period the State has specifically defined and asserted such a claim pursuant to law. This section shall apply to lands which have not been tidal flowed at any time during the 40 years immediately preceding adoption of this amendment with respect to any claim not specifically defined and asserted by the State within 1 year of the adoption of this amendment. [ N.J. Const. of 1947, art. VIII, § 5, para. 1] It is undisputed that the lands referred to in the Amendment include meadowlands and non-meadowlands. It is also clear that the Amendment applies only to lands that had been tidally flowed at one time. However, the effect of the Amendment may not be the same on all tidally flowed land. Thus, the State may have no claim to upland that became tidally flowed because of avulsion [7] or some artifically created condition. O'Neill v. State Hwy. Dep't, 50 N.J. 307, 324 (1967). It is also apparent that the Amendment relates only to properties that are not now tidally flowed, but had at one time been naturally tidally flowed. After such properties have not been so flowed for a 40-year period, the State's claim will be time-barred unless the State has specifically defined and asserted such a claim pursuant to law prior to the expiration of the 40-year period. The Amendment afforded the State an additional year specifically to define and assert claims when the 40-year period would have elapsed by November 3, 1981. Thus the State had one year, to November 3, 1982, to claim lands that had not been flowed by the tides since at least November 1941. Land that had become upland by natural accretion or reliction [8] generally belonged to the abutting property owner irrespective of the duration of time during which it had been upland. Borough of Wildwood Crest v. Masciarella, 51 N.J. 352, 359 (1968). With respect to accretion or reliction that occurs in connection with artificial structures, see the discussion in Borough of Wildwood Crest, supra, 51 N.J. at 359-61.