Court Opinion

ID: 9547485
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:48:00.410506+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:48.279829
License: Public Domain

Utter, J.
(concurring) — I concur in the result reached by the majority. It would be futile for The Orion Corporation to be required to apply for a permit for development it does not wish to pursue and that they certainly would not get.
The majority opinion suggests that a taking may have occurred simply because Orion can find no present, possible and reasonably profitable use for its tideland property. At least one commentator discussing whether shoreline regulation may result in an uncompensated taking notes that property rights in privately owned tidelands may not be identical to those in privately owned uplands. Crooks, The Washington Shoreline Management Act of 1971, 49 Wash. L. Rev. 423, 456 (1974). Even prior to enactment of the Shoreline Management Act of 1971, the extent to which Orion would have been able to develop its tideland property is unclear. Article 17 of the Washington Constitution vests ownership of tidelands in the State. However, disposal of tidelands by the State is subject to the public interest in navigation and the fishery. Hill v. Newell, 86 Wash. 227, 231, 149 P. 951 (1915), quoting People v. California Fish Co., 166 Cal. 576, 138 P. 79, 82-83 (1913); see generally Johnson & Cooney, Harbor Lines and the Public Trust Doctrine in Washington Navigable Waters, 54 Wash. L. Rev. 275, 285-87 (1979); Corker, Thou Shalt Not Fill Public Waters Without Public Permission — Washington's Lake Chelan Decision, 45 Wash. L. Rev. 65, 73-76 (1970).
We also need not rule on the admission of a portion of the affidavit by attorney Peter Buck. As the majority concedes, experts are not to state opinions of law. Comment, ER 704. It may not be correct that Mr. Buck's opinion that any permit application would be a futile gesture is a factual matter. Such an opinion would seem to be a legal opinion *465and, along with other legal opinions in the affidavit, should be disregarded by the trial judge. This is not critical to the case, however, because the other evidence overwhelmingly establishes Orion's contentions.