Opinion ID: 2388227
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Private ownership and evolving concepts of public rights.

Text: The grant of land occasioned by the Ordinance was designed to promote commerce by encouraging the construction of wharves at private expense. To induce persons to erect them, the common law of England was altered by an ordinance, providing that the proprietor of land adjoining on the sea or salt water, shall hold to lower water mark .... Storer v. Freeman, 6 Mass. 435, 438 (1810) (emphasis in the original). Accord, e.g., Commonwealth v. Charleston, 18 Mass. (1 Pick.) 180, 183 (1822). Notwithstanding that limited purpose, this Court has followed the lead of Massachusetts in describing the rights of the riparian owner expansively in terms of fee simple ownership. See, e.g., Bell v. Wells, 510 A.2d 509, 515 (Me.1986). Chief Justice Shaw emphasized the substantial nature of the owner's interest in Commonwealth v. Alger, 61 Mass. (7 Cush.) 53 (1851), one of the leading cases construing the ordinance. According to that court, the ordinance imports not an easement, an incorporeal right, license, or privilege, but a jus in re, a real or proprietary title to, and interest in, the soil itself, in contradistinction to a usufruct, or an uncertain and precarious interest. Id. at 70. Moreover, the fee holder could use traditional forms of action against persons who attempted to interfere with his rights of ownership. [H]e may maintain trespass for unlawful entry thereon, or trespass on the case for obstructing his rights of fishery, or a writ of entry against a disseizor .... Marshall v. Walker, 93 Me. 532, 537, 45 A. 497, 498 (1900). Subject to the rights of fishing, fowling, and navigation expressly reserved to the public in the ordinance, the riparian owner's title to the shore [is] as ample as to the upland .... State v. Wilson, 42 Me. 9, 28 (1856). [9] 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] 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. In Marshall v. Walker, 93 Me. 532, 45 A. 497 (1900), we suggested that the owner of the flats might appropriate the flats to himself by building on them or filling them and thereby cut off public rights provided only that navigation is not unreasonably impaired by this action. [The] ordinance has become a part of our common law, and by it, the proprietor of the main holds the shore to low water not exceeding one hundred rods. He holds it in fee, like other lands, subject, however, to the jus publicum, the right of the public to use it for the purposes of navigation and fishery, not, however, to interfere with his right of exclusive appropriation that shall not unreasonably impede navigation by filling and turning it into upland, or by building wharves or other structures upon it, so that necessarily the public would be excluded thereby. Id. at 536, 45 A. at 498 (emphasis added). In addition, we have held that the lands of the riparian owner may be increased by natural accretion. King v. Young, 76 Me. 76 (1884), and that he may convey the flats yet retain the upland or vice versa, or convey both separately. E.g. Snow v. Mount Desert Island Real Estate Co., 84 Me. 14, 18, 24 A. 429, 430 (1891). Looking at the other side of the ledger, we have consistently characterized the public's interest as an easement. E.g., Bell v. Wells, 510 A.2d 509, 516-17 (Me.1986). It is true, however, that it is an easement that has undergone significant change since its inclusion in the Ordinance. By its terms the Ordinance extended the liberties of fishing and fowling only to inhabitants who were householders. Perhaps as a result of the preexisting common law or a recognition of contrary usage the early opinions of this Court described the liberties as a public right. See e.g., Barrows v. McDermott, 73 Me. 441, 449 (1882). Although the liberties secured by the Ordinance grew out of the necessity to provide sustenance, they were soon expanded to include recreational fishing and fowling. In 1882, this Court acknowledged the possibility that the liberties were now chiefly exercised by pleasure seekers and idle tramps who might be more profitably employed .... Id. Moreover, the public's easement for fishing has expanded to include activities such as digging for worms, State v. Lemar, 147 Me. 405, 87 A.2d 886 (1952), digging for shellfish, Moulton v. Libbey, 37 Me. 472 (1854), and digging for clams. State v. Leavitt, 105 Me. 76, 72 A. 875 (1909). [11] The public rights of navigation now include the right to use the waters as a public highway even when frozen, French v. Camp, 18 Me. 433 (1841), and include travel for recreational purposes. E.g. Smart v. Aroostook Lumber Co., 103 Me. 37, 68 A. 527 (1907). 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] The last time this Court examined any of the public rights in intertidal lands we adopted an expansive view of the right of navigation. In Andrews v. King, 124 Me. 361, 129 A. 298 (1925), the shore owner claimed that the defendant, operator of a small power boat for hire, had no right to land passengers on his flats between high and low water mark. The plaintiff argued that under the express terms of the Ordinance, the right of navigation was limited to the stated purpose of passage to other men's houses or navigation for the purposes of fishing and fowling. We rejected this rigid construction of the Ordinance and held that the reservation in the Ordinance encompassed a general right of navigation. More significantly, we noted that the right of navigation included the mooring of vessels, and the discharging and taking in cargoes, provided the flats are unoccupied. Id. at 364, 129 A. at 299. Accord, Deering v. Long Wharf, 25 Me. 51, 65 (1845). In addition, members of the public were permitted to make such uses of the privately owned flats [i]n the pursuit of [their] private affairs, of business as well as pleasure.  Id. (emphasis added). 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). Similarly, we have prohibited the taking of seaweed from the flats of another. [T]he title to the seaweed is in the owner of the flats .... Hill v. Lord, 48 Me. 83, 86 (1861). Although we have not decided the question, at least one commentator has suggested that the scheme of ownership established by the ordinance also prohibits the public from taking sand and empty shells from the flats. See Comment, The Public Trust Doctrine in Maine's Submerged Lands: Public Rights, State Obligation and the Role of the Courts, 37 Me.L.Rev. 105, 114 (1985). 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 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. Property rights can not be established by analogy alone. The fisherman has a right to go upon another's flats to take his fish, because the ordinance of 1647... expressly reserved the right of fishery. The fisherman has a right to go upon another's flats because it is one of his reserved rights. But no such right was reserved to the ice-cutter.... And we fail to perceive how an ice company, operating upon one of our navigable rivers, can possess the right to deposit the snow scraped from its ice upon the flats of an adjoining owner, without the latter's consent. It is not among the reserved rights mentioned in the ordinance of 1647, nor ... has the right to thus incumber another's land been recognized or affirmed by judicial decision.... Id., 29 A. at 1069. [13] In modern times this Court, sitting as the Law Court, has not been called upon to further define and delineate the public right. We have, however, expressed the view that public rights in intertidal lands are dynamic. In Opinion of the Justices, 437 A.2d 597 (Me.1981), the question posed to the Justices concerned the constitutionality of a bill releasing the state's interest in filled submerged and intertidal lands. In commenting on the reasonableness of the legislation, the individual Justices recognized that the rights of the public in submerged and intertidal lands must evolve with the passage of time. Navigation, fishing, and fowling were the historical purposes for which the public trust principle was developed in the common law. Those public uses of intertidal and submerged lands remain important, but others have grown up as well. The press of an increasing population has lead to heavy demands upon Maine's great ponds and seacoast for recreation uses. Id. at 607. The Law Court later noted that the Justices had stated that the needs of a growing society may lead to a wider variety of public uses of submerged lands. Harding v. Commissioner, 510 A.2d 533, 537 (Me.1986). 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 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: [A] narrow view would recognize the right to picnic in a rowboat while resting on the foreshore but brand as a trespass the same activities performed while sitting on a blanket spread on the foreshore. The narrow view taken by the Massachusetts court does not exclude the public from walking on the foreshore as it purports; it merely requires that a person desiring to stroll along the foreshores of that state take with him a fishing line or net. In keeping with the apparent purpose of the Colony Ordinance and its past decisions, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court can refuse to draw such a delicate distinction between the rights expressly reserved in the ordinance and similar recreational activities. With such a refusal the court will avoid the anomalous result of declaring the same man a trespasser for bathing, who was no trespasser when up to his knees or neck in water, in search of a lobster, a crab, or a shrimp. Comment, Coastal Recreation at 83. In the context of this case, I would not attempt to provide a comprehensive definition of the recreational activities that could fall within the common law rights of the public. The plaintiffs requested a declaration that their ownership was subject only to the rights of fishing, fowling and navigation. The Superior Court granted their request, confining the public rights to those previously recognized by this Court and denying any further judicial development of those rights. I conclude that the court was in error. The rights of the public are, at a minimum, broad enough to include such recreational activities as bathing, sunbathing and walking. As ordinarily practiced, such activities involve no additional burden on the shoreowners and nothing is taken from or deposited on the intertidal lands. The present litigation does not require that we delineate the outer limits of the public rights. On the record before us it is only necessary to rule that the plaintiffs are not entitled to a declaration restricting the public rights to fishing, fowling and navigation. Any further refinement should await common law development or legislative action. [14]