Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce v. State

• Decision Date: 24 April 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-153-A,94-153-A
• Citation: 657 A.2d 1038
• Parties: The GREATER PROVIDENCE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE et al. v. STATE of Rhode Island. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 1038

657 A.2d 1038

The GREATER PROVIDENCE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE et al. v. STATE of Rhode Island.

No. 94-153-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

April 24, 1995.

John Boehnert, Partridge, Snow & Hahn, Providence, for plaintiffs.

Michael L. Rubin, Asst. Atty. Gen., Lauren S. Zurier, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Richard B. Sheffield, G. Quentin Anthony, Newport, Jeanne Shepard, Goldman & Biafore, Providence, Kendra Beaver (DEM), for defendant.

Dennis W. Nixon, Kingston, Robert Kehoe, David C. Slade, Washington, DC, Elizabeth R. Thagard, Boston, MA, S. Paul Ryan, East Providence, Richard Emmet, Boston, MA, for amicus curiae.

OPINION

SHEA, Justice.

This action brought in the Superior Court for Providence County seeks a declaratory judgment regarding the effect of the "Public Trust Doctrine" on certain interests that each plaintiff has in certain real property. ¹ The plaintiffs, who are the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce (Chamber of Commerce), Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Narragansett Electric Company (electric company), and Providence Gas Company (gas company), and the defendant State of Rhode Island (state) filed a joint petition and an agreed statement of facts seeking the declaratory judgment. Pursuant to G.L.1956 (1985 Reenactment) § 9-24-25, this declaratory-judgment action with the agreed statement of facts has been certified to the Supreme Court for determination.

The facts insofar as are pertinent to this certification will be set forth in the opinion that follows. This request for a declaration of property rights was initiated by the owners of filled land formerly part of Narragansett Bay and the owners of lands that presently abut the bay. The issue involves the ownership rights of land reclaimed from the sea by the placing of fill below mean high tide. The specific questions to be addressed are: Is the fee-simple absolute title to tidal land, which may have been filled as early in our history as the 1700s, in the private-record title holders? Or does the state hold such land for public-trust purposes?

For the reasons that follow, our answers to these questions favor plaintiffs, the private-record title holders. We specifically limit our holding regarding the "Harbor Line" parcels, to the electric-company parcel and the gas-company parcel and no other at this time.

I The "Cove Lands" Filled Properties

Two of the properties at issue are known as the Cove Lands parcels. They are located in what was the former Great Salt Cove, an area of Providence, which in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century was a tidal saltwater cove several hundred acres in area. Both of these properties are located on land known as the Cove Lands, which was created by the placing of fill below mean high tide in this saltwater cove, eventually filling in the cove completely.

A RISD Parcel

The first Cove Lands parcel is held by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). The plaintiff RISD is a legislatively chartered Rhode Island nonprofit corporation and is the record owner of a three-story building located on the eastern side of South Main Street and the northern side of College Street in Providence and known as the Market House. This three-story building was constructed in 1773, after being funded by a lottery authorized by the General Assembly, and served as the center of commerce for the then-infant port city of Providence. Currently this building is utilized to house college classrooms and school offices. RISD acquired the title to this parcel of land by deed from the city of Providence, dated May 27, 1948, which was duly recorded in the city's land evidence records.

B Chamber of Commerce Parcel

The other Cove Lands parcel is used as an office building by plaintiff Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber of Commerce), a legislatively chartered Rhode Island nonprofit corporation. As stipulated in the record, plaintiff Chamber of Commerce has an ownership interest in the lessee of a three-story office building located at the corner of West Exchange Street and Francis Street in Providence, and it is a beneficiary of an option to purchase the Chamber of Commerce parcel. The Chamber of Commerce property was the former West Building of the Union Station Complex, which was built between 1896 and 1898.

Neither the RISD parcel nor the Chamber of Commerce parcel now borders on navigable or tidal water.

C Conclusion

By deed dated May 14, 1870, the State of Rhode Island conveyed title to the former Cove Lands to the city of Providence (the Cove Lands Grant). The Cove Lands Grant was authorized by a General Assembly Resolution (the Cove Lands Resolution).

The question pertaining to these two Cove Lands parcels is whether the public-trust doctrine was extinguished in the Cove Lands by the state's express grant of those lands to the city of Providence in 1870. We hold that it was extinguished. The Cove Lands grant is an example of the principle that the public-trust doctrine can be extinguished by a valid legislative state grant. This court's decision in City of Providence v. Comstock, 27 R.I. 537, 65 A. 307 (1906), aptly demonstrates why, in the instance of the Cove Lands parcels, an express legislative grant was appropriate. In Comstock this court noted a unique circumstance peculiar to the Cove Lands:

"Various steps were taken to preserve the cove as a feature of the landscape and for supposed sanitary or hydraulic reasons from that time until it was finally filled in 1892, but no legislation for nearly a hundred years has recognized any riparian or littoral rights in the owners of the lands bordering on the original lines of the salt water. Streets were laid out around it for the express purpose of excluding such claims by cutting off the access of those proprietors to the channel, and in all such layouts it was agreed that no damage was done to private owners." Id. at 549, 65 A. at 311.

In addition, special legislation pertaining to the Cove Lands, for example, legislation in 1841 prohibiting any construction in the cove without city consent and subsequent legislation authorizing the railroads to fill land in the cove for railroad purposes, were unique circumstances pertaining only to the Cove Lands. This court noted in Comstock that despite such activity, no private owners claimed that their riparian rights had been infringed, and the court stated that "all private littoral rights in the waters of the cove, such as the defendants now claim, had been extinguished." Id. at 551, 65 A. at 312. Last, the General Assembly in 1867 revoked all grants of any portions of the Cove Lands that had not been accepted and the conditions of which had not been fulfilled. Id. at 553, 65 A. at 312.

It is for the foregoing reasons that an express legislative grant was necessary and appropriate to convey an interest in the Cove Lands free of the public-trust doctrine. Clearly the construction of public streets between private property and saltwater in order to prevent riparian rights from arising, and special legislation dealing with the Cove Lands, called into direct question the status of any common-law riparian rights, thus distinguishing the Cove Lands parcels from the two Harbor Line parcels that we shall consider below.

We hold that the Cove Lands deed of 1870 constituted a valid legislative grant, and plaintiffs, RISD and the Chamber of Commerce, own their respective Cove Land parcels in fee-simple absolute.

II The "Harbor Line" Filled Properties

The other two properties at issue are located on the Providence River where land was reclaimed by filling below mean high tide out to a harbor line. The plaintiff electric company owns approximately 8.31 acres of land in Providence bounded on the east by Eddy Street, on the west by the Providence River, and on the south by South Street. This parcel presently contains land created by filling below the high-water mark as it existed in 1857. This filling occurred between 1857 and 1886 and did not extend beyond the harbor line established in the Providence River in April 1879 or beyond any prior harbor line. The eastern boundary of this parcel is located along that harbor line. The filling of this property below mean high tide occurred prior to the electric company's ownership. There is nothing in the record to indicate that this filled parcel of land was filled with the express approval of the state. However, it is safe to assume that such filling would not have been allowed to occur in a busy waterway without at least the state's tacit approval, if not its express approval. This parcel is known as the South Street Station and has served as an electrical energy generating and transmission facility since the early 1920s.

The plaintiff gas company is the owner of approximately 16.5 acres of land in Providence situated to the east of Allens Avenue, north of Terminal Road, and west of (and bounded by) the Providence River, on which the gas company constructed a coal-gas plant between 1909 and 1910. This parcel includes land created by filling below the highwater mark as it existed in 1911. This filling below the high-water mark did not extend beyond the harbor line in the Providence River established in April 1880, and the eastern boundary of that parcel is located along that harbor line. Permits were issued by the Rhode Island Board of Harbor Commissioners for such filling in 1907, 1909, and 1914. Currently this property is used as a facility for the conversion of liquified natural gas as well as for the distribution of natural gas.

The question to be resolved regarding these two Harbor Line parcels involves an analysis of state law regarding whether the creation of land by filling below mean high tide extinguishes the public-trust rights in the land so reclaimed. We conclude that plaintiffs electric company and gas company hold title to the real estate in question in fee-simple absolute. We reject the state's contentions that the Harbor Line properties...