Boyds Civic Ass'n v. Montgomery County Council

• Decision Date: 01 September 1986
• Docket Number: Nos. 62,100,s. 62
• Citation: 526 A.2d 598,309 Md. 683
• Parties: BOYDS CIVIC ASSOCIATION, et al. v. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COUNCIL, et al. (Two Cases) ,
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 683

309 Md. 683

526 A.2d 598

BOYDS CIVIC ASSOCIATION, et al. v. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COUNCIL, et al. (Two Cases)

Nos. 62, 100, Sept. Term, 1986.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

June 8, 1987.

William J. Chen, Jr. (John F. McCabe, Jr., Chen, Walsh & Techer, on brief), Rockville, and Allan A. Noble and Budow & Noble, P.C., on brief), Bethesda, for appellants.

Alan M. Wright, Senior Asst. Co. Atty. (Paul A. McGuckian, Co. Atty., on brief), Rockville, for appellee Montgomery County Council in No. 62.

Kathleen Sheehy (Charles G. Dalrymple and Linowes & Blocher, on brief), Silver Spring, for appellee Rockville Crushed Stone, Inc. in No. 62.

Arthur S. Drea, Jr., Gen. Counsel and Jane E. Allan, Associate Gen. Counsel, on brief, Silver Spring, for The Maryland Nat. Capital Park and Planning Com'n in No. 62.

Jane E. Allan, Associate Gen. Counsel (Arthur S. Drea, Jr., Gen. Counsel, on brief); Silver Spring, for appellee The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in No. 100.

Kathleen Sheehey (Charles G. Dalrymple and Linowes & Blocher, on brief), for appellee Rockville Crushed Stone, Inc., in No. 100.

Paul A. McGuckian, Co. Attey. and Alan M. Wright, Senior Assnt. Co. Attey., on the brief, Rockville, for appellee Montgomery County in No. 100.

Argued before ELDRIDGE, COLE, RODOWSKY, COUCH, ^* McAULIFFE, JJ., and MARVIN H. SMITH and CHARLES E. ORTH, Jr., Associate Judges of the Court of Special Appeals (retired), Specially Assigned.

MARVIN H. SMITH, Judge, Retired, Specially Assigned.

The Montgomery County zoning ordinance provides for what is called a Mineral Resource Recovery Zone. It is in the nature of a floating zone. A prerequisite to adoption of that zone for any specific area is that the master plan for the area must designate the land as suitable for such a zone. These two appeals involve an amendment to the Boyds Master Plan providing that certain land is suitable for such a zone.

In No. 62 we shall hold that property owners who contested the procedures leading to the designation of land adjacent to them on the Boyds Master Plan as suitable for such a zone presented an issue cognizable in a declaratory judgment action.

In No. 100 we shall hold that the adoption of an amendment to the master plan by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Montgomery County Council is not a contested case within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act and hence that the attempted appeal from such action was properly dismissed.

I--No. 62

Boyds Civic Association and seven individual property owners brought an action for declaratory judgment in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Montgomery County Council sitting as the District Council for that portion of the Maryland-Washington Regional District located within Montgomery County were named as defendants. ¹ Rockville Crushed Stone, Inc., the owner of the land in question, was granted permission to enter the proceeding as a party defendant.

As this appeal was taken from an order dismissing the complaint, the facts summarized here are culled from the pleadings. ² The sole issue before us is whether a justiciable controversy exists.

Boyds, a rural community in northern Montgomery County, comprises some 3,085 acres and is the subject of a master plan duly approved and adopted in 1978. The individual parties plaintiff reside in Boyds "within sight and sound" of a 530-acre tract which Rockville Crushed Stone owns and upon which it wishes to operate a quarry. It may not do so, however, unless and until its land is rezoned from its current residential classification to that of a Mineral Resource Recovery Zone. As we indicated at the outset, a prerequisite to the granting of such zoning is that the applicable masterplan recommend that use for the property in question. The Boyds Master Plan approved and adopted in 1978 contained no such recommendation for the Rockville Crushed Stone property.

Rockville Crushed Stone commenced its efforts to obtain rezoning in 1981, by (1) filing a local zoning map amendment application with the District Council, and (2) requesting the Commission, through its Montgomery County Planning Board, to propose to the District Council that the 1978 Boyds Master Plan be amended to contain a recommendation of Mineral Resource Recovery Zone suitability for the land owned by Rockville Crushed Stone. Rockville was initially unsuccessful in its efforts. Ultimately, however, the master plan was amended in February 1985 as requested by Rockville. ³

Petitioners contended in their complaint that the master plan amendment was approved and adopted in contravention of state and county laws requiring notice and public hearings at certain stages of the amendment process. They sought in their action for declaratory judgment to have the trial court declare that the master plan amendment was "illegal, unlawful, invalid, of no force nor [sic] effect, and unconstitutional" because of these violations.

The circuit court dismissed the claim as not presenting a justiciable controversy. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed in Boyds Civic Ass'n v. Montgomery County, 67 Md.App. 131, 506 A.2d 675 (1986). We granted certiorari in order that we might address the important public question here presented. The Court of Special Appeals reasoned:

"Because the 1985 Amendment to the master plan merely authorizes but does not require the District Council to rezone the property with the MRR classification, it did not bestow upon RCS any right to use the property in a way that would affect the rights of the appellant[s]. Compare Anne Arundel County v. Ebersberger, [62 Md.App. 360, 489 A.2d 96 (1985) ].... On the date appellant[s] filed [their] complaint, the situation clearly was one where the court was being asked to decide future rights in anticipation of an event--the rezoning to MRR--which might never take place. Accordingly, we hold that the trial court correctly determined there to be no justiciable controversy. See Ebersberger, supra. See also Tanner v. McKeldin, 202 Md. 569, 97 A.2d 449 (1953)." 67 Md.App. at 144, 506 A.2d at 682 (emphasis in original; citation omitted).

As indicated, this proceeding was brought under the Maryland version of the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, which was altered slightly in language when it became Maryland Code (1974) §§ 3-401 to -415, Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article. Section 3-402 provides that the subtitle is remedial and "[i]ts purpose is to settle and afford relief from uncertainty and insecurity with respect to rights, status, and other legal relations." To this end "[i]t shall be liberally construed and administered." Section 3-406 provides:

"Any person interested under a deed, will, trust, land patent, written contract, or other writing constituting a contract, or whose rights, status, or other legal relations are affected by a statute, municipal ordinance, administrative rule or regulation, contract, or franchise, may have determined any question of construction or validity arising under the instrument, statute, ordinance, administrative rule or regulation, land patent, contract, or franchise and obtain a declaration of rights, status, or other legal relations under it."

With an exception not relevant to this proceeding, § 3-409(a) provides in pertinent part:

"(a) In general.--... [A] court may grant a declaratory judgment or decree in a civil case, if it will serve to terminate the uncertainty or controversy giving rise to the proceeding, and if:

"(1) An actual controversy exists between contending parties;

"(2) Antagonistic claims are present between the parties involved which indicate imminent and inevitable litigation; or

"(3) A party asserts a legal relation, status, right, or privilege and this is challenged or denied by an adversary party, who also has or asserts a concrete interest in it."

Section 3-409(b) states that if a statute provides a special form of remedy for a specific type of case, that statutory remedy shall be followed in lieu of a proceeding under the declaratory judgment subtitle. Section 3-409(c) provides that a party may obtain a declaratory judgment or decree notwithstanding a concurrent common-law, equitable, or extraordinary legal remedy, whether or not recognized or regulated by statute.

On numerous occasions, we have observed that under the statute "the existence of a justiciable controversy is an absolute prerequisite to the maintenance of a declaratory judgment action." Hatt v. Anderson, 297 Md. 42, 45, 464 A.2d 1076, 1078 (1983); accord, e.g., Harford County v. Schultz, 280 Md. 77, 80-87, 371 A.2d 428, 430-33 (1977); Reyes v. Prince George's County, 281 Md. 279, 287-88, 380 A.2d 12, 17 (1977); Hamilton v. McAuliffe, 277 Md. 336, 339-40, 353 A.2d 634, 637 (1976). It follows, therefore, that in the absence of a justiciable controversy a court should not entertain an action for declaratory judgment.

This Court has defined a justiciable controversy as one wherein "there are interested parties asserting adverse claims upon a state of facts which must have accrued wherein a legal decision is sought or demanded." Patuxent Co. v. Commissioners, 212 Md. 543, 548, 129 A.2d 847, 849 (1957) (emphasis added) (quoting 1 W.H. Anderson, Actions for Declaratory Judgments § 17 (2d ed. 1951)); accord Hatt, 297 Md. at 45-46, 464 A.2d at 1078; Harford County, 280 Md. at 81, 371 A.2d at 430; Reyes, 281 Md. at 288, 380 A.2d at 17; Pr. George's Co. v. Bd. of Trustees, 269 Md. 9, 12, 304 A.2d 228, 230 (1973). In Hatt, Chief Judge Murphy cautioned for the Court that addressing non-justiciable issues "would place courts in the position of rendering purely advisory opinions, a long forbidden practice in this State." 297 Md. at 46, 464 A.2d at 1078.

Borchard describes justiciability as a concept embodying "numerous hurdles." E. Borchard, Declaratory Judgments 770 (2d ed. 1941). In ...