Sartor v. Coastal Resources Management Council

• Decision Date: 24 May 1988
• Docket Number: No. 86-106-M,86-106-M
• Citation: 542 A.2d 1077
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court
• Parties: Cecil D. SARTOR v. COASTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT COUNCIL et al. P.

Page 1077

542 A.2d 1077

Cecil D. SARTOR v. COASTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT COUNCIL et al.

No. 86-106-M.P.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

May 24, 1988.

Thomas S. Hogan, Hogan & Hogan, East Providence, for plaintiff.

Alan J. Goldman, Jeanne L. Shepard, Goldman & Biafore, Providence, for defendant.

OPINION

MURRAY, Justice.

This matter is before this court on a petition for certiorari filed by Cecil D. Sartor. The petitioner seeks review of a Superior Court order filed February 18, 1986, entered after a written decision sustaining a decision of the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC). The CRMC therein designated a portion of a parcel of land owned by the petitioner as a public right-of-way to the tidal waters of the state. The trial justice denied the petitioner's appeal pursuant to G.L. 1956 (1984 Reenactment) chapter 35 of title 42, the Administrative Procedures Act. The petitioner alleges, inter alia, that the designation of public rights-of-way by the CRMC is violative of constitutional and statutory provisions. The petitioner further asserts that the CRMC's findings of fact and conclusions of law are clearly erroneous and that its decision is arbitrary, capricious and characterized by an abuse of discretion. For the reasons set forth below, the petition for certiorari is denied and the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

The instant dispute revolves around the question of whether petitioner's predecessor in interest dedicated a portion of a parcel now held by petitioner as a public right-of-way. The parcel in question is situated in Barrington, Rhode Island, at the junction of Mushechuck Creek and Narragansett Bay.

Pursuant to the mandate of art. I, sec. 17, of the Constitution of Rhode Island, ¹ the General Assembly, by statute established the Coastal Resources Management Council, an administrative agency, charged with the responsibility of the preservation, protection, development, and, where possible, the restoration of the state's coastal resources. ² One of its duties is to designate public rights-of-way to the tidal areas of the state and to carry on a continuing discovery of said rights-of-way. ³ To that end, the CRMC "rights of way subcommittee" ⁴ (subcommittee) held a hearing on May 7, 1981, in part concerning the possible designation of a strip of land at the northernmost part of petitioner's property as a public right-of-way.

The subcommittee received documentary evidence and conflicting testimony regarding the existence of a public right-of-way. Evidence which tended to suggest that a public right-of-way had in fact been dedicated included an entry in the bylaws of the Barrington Town Council dated January 5, 1915, that stated:

"The President (Harrington J. Anthony) presents the request of Charles D. Owen, asking for permission to close up a street running from Sycamore Ave [sic] [now Nyatt Road] to the shore of Narragansett Bay, and to be allowed to open another way to the shore further to the north. The Clerk (Frederick P. Church) is instructed to inform Mr. Owen, that the Council have no objections to his closing said street by fencing the same provided he opens another one to the west shore of the Bay." (The record is unclear whether the emphasis was in the original or subsequently added.)

The subcommittee also received a report prepared by the Waterman Engineering Co. in October 1931 that contained a map. Both the CRMC and the trial justice found that a passageway appears thereon whose location exactly corresponds with the disputed public right-of-way. The passageway is not denominated as a right-of-way. However, the passageway is clearly identified as a right-of-way on the tax assessor's plat No. 5 map. This last map is undated. A plat plan submitted to the subcommittee that was prepared by the Stanley Engineering Company and recorded in November of 1949 indicates that a strip of land corresponding to the location of the land in question was opened as a right-of-way in 1915. A title report dated April 15, 1981, was submitted to the subcommittee. The report contained many of the aforementioned documents as well as documents tracing the chain of title to the property. The author thereof concluded that the parcel in question was subject to a public right-of-way in the form of an easement in the land by dedication and public use. Taking an opposing tack, petitioner's attorney argued that the real estate records in Barrington are devoid of any entry that shows that any of petitioner's predecessors in interest ever created an identifiable public right-of-way.

The full CMRC conducted a hearing on September 9, 1981. The petitioner's attorney again argued that although the Barrington Town Council had granted a request by a former owner to abandon a street contingent upon the opening of a right-of-way further to the north of the parcel, said right-of-way was never recorded in the appropriate register. Testimony was then received that the asserted public right-of-way was used as such for fishing up until the time that petitioner's immediate predecessor acquired the parcel, at which point the right-of-way was blocked off. At the September 9 meeting the Barrington town solicitor informed the CRMC that the town of Barrington had decided to accept what he termed an offer of dedication of the right-of-way. Although the subcommittee had made no recommendation to the CRMC prior to the meeting, at the meeting it recommended that the disputed area be designated a public right-of-way. At the conclusion of the meeting a motion carried to so designate the disputed area.

The scope of review on a writ of certiorari is limited to a review of the record and such review must extend only to questions of law that appear in the petition. Almstead v. Department of Employment Security, 478 A.2d 980 (R.I.1984). The grounds for reversal must appear upon the face of the record. Prospecting Unlimited, Inc. v. Norberg, 119 R.I. 116, 376 A.2d 702 (1977). As will be seen below, our review of the record reveals that the trial justice committed no reversible error.

I

The petitioner argues that the power legislatively conferred upon the CRMC, an administrative agency within the purview of the executive department, to determine public rights-of-way constitutes an exercise of judicial powers. According to this theory such exercise is unconstitutional because said powers may be exercised only by the judicial department, not the executive, or for that matter, legislative branches of the state government.

Article V of the Constitution of Rhode Island provides that "[t]he power of the government shall be distributed into three departments: the legislative, executive and judicial." Neither the executive department nor the legislative department may arrogate to itself the exercise of judicial power. See G. & D. Taylor & Co. v. Place, 4 R.I. 324, 353-54 (1856). However, "[t]o some extent, and in some sense, each of the powers appropriated to different [governmental] departments * * * must be exercised by every other department of the government, in order to [render] the proper performance of its duty." Id. at 332. As will be seen, infra, the function performed by the CRMC is not judicial.

As stated earlier, the CRMC is charged with the responsibility of making findings regarding the existence of public rights-of-way to the tidal-water areas of the state and designating them as such. Hearings are held and evidence is taken, initially by the subcommittee and later by the full CRMC. ⁵ Persons aggrieved by CRMC determinations may appeal to the Superior Court pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, § 42-35-15. Further review may be had by way of a petition for certiorari to this court, pursuant to § 42-35-16.

At the outset we observe that administrative institutions are as old as the American government itself. 1 C. Koch, Jr., Administrative Law and Practice § 1.9 at 17 (1985). This court has long upheld the exercise of quasi-judicial powers by administrative agencies. Aniello v. Marcello, 91 R.I. 198, 207, 162 A.2d 270, 274 (1960). Although we acknowledge that in relation to petitioner the subcommittee and later the CRMC acted in a quasi-judicial capacity, the mere fact that some discretion was exercised in carrying out the mandate set forth in G.L. 1956 (1980 Reenactment) § 46-23-6(E) does not, vel non, make such discretion an exercise of the judicial power within the purview of the State Constitution. Berberian v. Lussier, 87 R.I. 226, 235, 139 A.2d 869, 874 (1958).

We have previously observed that the essence of the exercise of judicial power consists of rendering judgments to be executed pursuant to the inherent power of the tribunal. G & D Taylor & Co. v. Place, 4 R.I. at 336. An examination of the CRMC's enabling legislation reveals that it is bereft of such power. Thus, pursuant to § 46-23-7, as amended by P.L. 1980, ch. 208, § 1, the CRMC is unable to exercise its purported judicial powers except by resort to the appropriate article X court. ⁶

The petitioner argues that the designation of a public right-of-way necessarily requires a determination that the land over which such right-of-way extends is burdened thereby. According to petitioner such designation is tantamount to a determination that the public has acquired an interest in the owner's land. The petitioner urges that such a determination may be made only by a court of law, not by an administrative agency which is a creature of the executive department.

We have already sustained the constitutionality of the Coastal Resources Management Council Act in the face of a challenge asserting that the enabling legislation constituted an impermissible delegation of legislative authority. Milardo v. Coastal Resources Management Council of Rhode Island, 434 A.2d 266, 270-71 (R.I.1981). We have also upheld the statute when the same was challenged on grounds that it was violative of procedural due process, substantive due process and equal protection...