Court Opinion

ID: 9622656
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:21:44.284025+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:18.939285
License: Public Domain

RABINO WITZ, Justice,
joined by COMPTON, Justice, dissenting in part.
I disagree with the majority’s holding that Citizens for the Preservation of the Kenai River (CPKR) is a public interest litigant.
In my view, there is nothing in the record on which to base a conclusion that most CPKR members lacked financial incentive to bring this lawsuit. The group’s submissions to the superior court emphasize its members’ alleged economic injuries. Of CPKR members who submitted affidavits detailing their alleged losses as a result of the regulation, only one submitted a definite figure less than $20,000. That person claimed the loss of a $12,000 boat. Two other affiants did not place dollar amounts on their alleged losses, but claimed the values of their riparian properties were “substantially” diminished.
Despite claims of significant financial losses by CPKR affiants, the majority speculates that CPKR members who did not submit affidavits had little economic incentive to participate in the suit. This speculation is unfounded. The record contains no indication that “all but a few” CPKR members have little or no financial interest in this suit. On the contrary, a number of CPKR members claimed losses because of inability to sell their large boats, allegedly rendered “useless” by the motor horsepower restriction, due to depressed market conditions for large boats. Presumably, all owners of large boats who wished to use their boats on the Kenai River would find themselves facing similar losses. Since CPKR apparently represents primarily, if not exclusively, owners of large boats who use the Kenai River, it follows that most *628CPKR members had a significant financial incentive to attempt to invalidate the horsepower limit.
I would hold that CPKR does not satisfy the test for determining whether a party is a public interest litigant because its members had sufficient economic incentive to bring this lawsuit regardless of the grounds for the challenge, and would remand this case to the superior court for consideration of the state’s motion for attorney’s fees.