Opinion ID: 2192314
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Heading: The Standing Requirement

Text: We first address whether plaintiffs have standing to request a declaratory judgment with respect to the encroachment permit. A plaintiff must allege facts sufficient to confer standing [o]n the face of the complaint. Town of Cavendish v. Vermont Pub. Power Supply Auth., 141 Vt. 144, 147-48, 446 A.2d 792, 794 (1982). The standing requirement originates in Article III of the United States Constitution, which states that federal courts have jurisdiction only over actual cases or controversies. See U.S. Const. art. III. This requirement has been adopted in Vermont. The judicial power, as conferred by the Constitution of this State upon this Court, is the same as that given to the Federal Supreme Court by the United States Constitution; that is, the right to determine actual controversies arising between adverse litigants, duly instituted in courts of proper jurisdiction. In re Constitutionality of House Bill 88, 115 Vt. 524, 529, 64 A.2d 169, 172 (1949) (internal quotations omitted). An element of the case or controversy requirement is that plaintiffs must have standing, that is, they must have suffered a particular injury that is attributable to the defendant and that can be redressed by a court of law. The existence of an actual controversy turns on whether the plaintiff is suffering the threat of actual injury to a protected legal interest, or is merely speculating about the impact of some generalized grievance. Town of Cavendish, 141 Vt. at 147, 446 A.2d at 794. The standing and case or controversy requirements thus enforce the separation of powers between the three different branches of government by confining the judiciary to the adjudication of actual disputes and preventing the judiciary from presiding over broad-based policy questions that are properly resolved in the legislative arena. See Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 752, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984); Hinesburg Sand & Gravel Co. v. State, 166 Vt. 337, 341, 693 A.2d 1045, 1047-48 (1997). In Vermont, a plaintiff must demonstrate standing for a court to have jurisdiction over a petition for declaratory relief. See Town of Cavendish, 141 Vt. at 147, 446 A.2d at 794; Gifford Memorial Hosp. v. Town of Randolph, 119 Vt. 66, 70, 118 A.2d 480, 483 (1955). This is because a declaratory judgment can only `provide a declaration of rights, status, and other legal relations of parties to an actual or justiciable controversy.' Doria v. University of Vt., 156 Vt. 114, 117, 589 A.2d 317, 318 (1991) (quoting Robtoy v. City of St. Albans, 132 Vt. 503, 504, 321 A.2d 45, 46 (1974)). Otherwise, the judgment would be no more than an advisory opinion, which we lack the constitutional power to render. See Massachusetts Mun. Wholesale Elec. Co. v. State, 161 Vt. 346, 363, 639 A.2d 995, 1006 (1994); accord Lace v. University of Vt., 131 Vt. 170, 175, 303 A.2d 475, 478 (1973). Vermont has adopted a three-part test to determine whether a plaintiff has standing. A plaintiff must, at a minimum, show (1) injury in fact, (2) causation, and (3) redressability. See Hinesburg Sand & Gravel Co., 166 Vt. at 341, 693 A.2d at 1048 (adopting test articulated in Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992)). Stated another way, a plaintiff must allege personal injury fairly traceable to the defendant's allegedly unlawful conduct, which is likely to be redressed by the requested relief. See Allen, 468 U.S. at 751, 104 S.Ct. 3315. The injury must be an invasion of a legally protected interest, Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, not a generalized harm to the public. The standing requirement applies to organizations as well as individuals. An association has standing to bring suit on behalf of its members when (1) its members have standing individually; (2) the interests it asserts are germane to the organization's purpose; and (3) the claim and relief requested do not require the participation of individual members in the action. See Hunt v. Washington State Apple Adver. Comm., 432 U.S. 333, 343, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977). An organization must show a concrete injury; an abstract interest in the outcome of an adjudication is insufficient. See Simon v. Eastern Ky. Welfare Rights Org., 426 U.S. 26, 40, 96 S.Ct. 1917, 48 L.Ed.2d 450 (1976). Because an organization's members must have standing for the organization to have standing, we subject the union and individual plaintiffs to the same analysis. Plaintiffs in this case argue that invoking the public trust doctrine should relieve them of the requirement to demonstrate individualized harm. They argue that, because members of the public are the beneficiaries of the public trust in navigable waters, mere status as a member of the public should be sufficient to confer standing. They analogize their claimed cause of action to a shareholder's derivative suit. Thus, plaintiffs argue, they need only show a harm to the trust as a whole, not an individualized harm to their own private property. Contrary to plaintiffs' contention, the standing requirement of particularized injury is not suspended in cases where the plaintiff asserts the public trust doctrine. The Court has already decided this precise question. In Hazen v. Perkins, 92 Vt. 414, 105 A. 249 (1918), we found that the defendant, by virtue of the public trust doctrine, had no right to build structures that affected the lake level, and that the defendant's activities affect[ed] the common rights of all persons and produce[d] a common injury. Id. at 421, 105 A. at 251. We further found that the defendant's actions were a public nuisance against which the state would have a remedy. See id. Nonetheless, we concluded that the plaintiffs in that case, owners of land abutting the contested body of water, were required to show that they have suffered some special and substantial injury, distinct and apart from the general injury to the public to maintain a private suit against such a public nuisance. Id. The impact of the defendant's activities on the plaintiffs' aesthetic enjoyment and use of the water were not deemed to be injuries sufficient to establish standing. See id. at 422, 105 A. at 252. Thus, Hazen establishes that standing is not conferred on individuals merely by virtue of their status as beneficiaries of the interest protected by the public trust doctrine. Nevertheless, plaintiffs contend that imposing the standing requirement in the public trust area is contrary to the logic of the public trust doctrine and would defeat its purposes. Even if that were true, standing is a jurisdictional requirement that may not be abrogated in favor of furthering the purposes of the public trust doctrine. Vermont courts addressing requests for declaratory judgment are only empowered to decide justiciable controversies. By requiring plaintiffs to show actual injury to meet the standing requirement, we ensure that the cases before the courts are fully and vigorously litigated in pursuit of genuine interests. Moreover, we do not agree that the standing requirement undermines the public trust doctrine. The purpose of the doctrine is to preserve the public's interest in Vermont's navigable waterways. See 29 V.S.A. § 401. It does not advance the public trust doctrine to permit litigants without a personal stake in the proceedings to claim harm to some generalized interest that they alone articulate, purportedly on behalf of the public interest. Here, plaintiffs' claim of injury is to the economic and employment interests of the public in general. While plaintiffs may have some legitimate concerns about how the proposed project will affect those interests, they may not address them to this Court. Any broad, policy-based inquiry into the economic and employment interests affected should be addressed to the Legislature. The requirement of an actual, particularized injury cannot be suspended in cases where plaintiffs invoke the public trust doctrine.