Fitzgerald v. Baxter State Park Authority

• Decision Date: 06 April 1978
• Citation: 385 A.2d 189
• Parties: Charles FITZGERALD et al. v. BAXTER STATE PARK AUTHORITY et al.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 189

385 A.2d 189

11 ERC 1513

Charles FITZGERALD et al. v. BAXTER STATE PARK AUTHORITY et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

April 6, 1978.

Murray, Plumb & Murray by E. Stephen Murray (orally), Portland, for plaintiffs.

Sarah E. Redfield (orally), John M. R. Paterson, Asst. Attys. Gen., Augusta, for defendants.

Before McKUSICK, C. J., and WERNICK, ARCHIBALD, GODFREY and NICHOLS, JJ.

McKUSICK, Chief Justice.

The plaintiffs, all being Maine citizens and users of Baxter State Park, brought this suit in the Superior Court seeking to restrain the Baxter State Park Authority from carrying out a program for cleaning and restoring certain areas of timber blowdown that occurred in late November 1974. After extensive hearings, the Superior Court entered, on August 24, 1976, its injunction as follows:

"Defendants are prohibited from continuing to harvest blow-down in the manner in which the present operation is being conducted, to wit: with the use of heavy equipment. Further clearance may continue, but without the use of heavy equipment, and in such a manner as will not unduly disturb the terrain and natural environment. The Baxter State Park Authority may, however, proceed to develop, and contract, plans for clearance of blow-down, which would more closely follow the terms of the trust deeds as they have been herein interpreted by the Court."

From that injunctive order the plaintiffs appealed, and the defendants ¹ cross-appealed. ² Finding no error of law in the Superior Court's decision, we deny both appeals and affirm the judgment below.

Among the many public-spirited benefactors with whom the State of Maine has been blessed, Percival Proctor Baxter ³ stands preeminent. In its combination of size, uniqueness, permanence, and vision, his gift of Baxter State Park to the people of Maine has no equal. ⁴ Over a period of 31 years, former Governor Baxter deeded to the State of Maine in trust a total of 201,018 acres of land, principally in Piscataquis County, for the establishment of Baxter State Park. His first gift in 1931 of about 6,000 acres, encompassing the higher areas of Mt. Katahdin and the slopes on all four sides, set a pattern that he was to follow in his succession of gifts completed in 1962. In each case he transmitted to the current governor his deed of trust which was then duly submitted to the legislature for acceptance by private and special act. ⁵ In Governor Baxter's transmittal letters to the successive governors, ⁶ he set forth his grand design for a state park around Maine's highest mountain. ⁷ In addition to the conveyances of land, Governor Baxter in 1961 and 1965 gave the State sums in excess of $1.5 million for the care, operation, and maintenance of the Park. P.& S.L.1961, ch. 21; P.& S.L.1965, ch. 30.

By his deeds of trust Governor Baxter conveyed the lands to the State of Maine as trustee to hold in trust for the benefit of the people of Maine, subject to certain conditions for the use of the land. This case raises issues as to the application of those conditions. For the purposes of the present case, the condition of the deed of trust accepted by chapter 1 of the 1945 Private & Special Acts is typical: ⁸

"TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the above described premises with all the privileges and appurtenances thereto to the State of Maine as Trustee to be forever held in Trust for the People of Maine upon the following conditions "(1) that the premises HEREIN donated and conveyed to the State of Maine together with all the lands HERETOFORE donated and conveyed to said State . . . by the grantor herein, forever shall be kept for and as a State forest and public park and for public recreational purposes ;

"(2) that the said WITHIN donated and conveyed premises and also the said premises HERETOFORE donated and conveyed forever shall be kept in their natural wild state and as a sanctuary for wild beasts and birds, . . . " (Emphasis added)

Also involved in our present case is chapter 2 of the Private & Special Laws of 1955, which we will sometimes refer to as the "1955 interpretation act," in which the State of Maine formally joined in a declaration by Governor Baxter interpreting the terms "natural wild state" and "sanctuary for wild beasts and birds" as those terms were used by the parties in the deeds of trust. That act, by its terms, purported to authorize the State of Maine to clean, protect, and restore blowdown areas and to set priorities as among the "forever wild" and other objectives of the donor.

The State of Maine, as the trustee of Baxter State Park, has designated the Baxter State Park Authority as its agent "to satisfy the terms of the Trust." 12 M.R.S.A. § 900 (1964). The Authority is given "full power in the control and management" of the Park, including the authority to receive and expend for the maintenance, operation, and expansion of the Park moneys from the trust fund established for those purposes by Governor Baxter. 12 M.R.S.A. § 901 (1964). The Authority, established early in Governor Baxter's program of gifts to the State, 1933 Laws, ch. 281, is now comprised of the Attorney General, the Director of the Bureau of Forestry, and the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. See State v. Fin & Feather Club, Me., 316 A.2d 351 (1974). The Authority exercises police supervision over the Park, 12 M.R.S.A. § 905 (1964), and employs a Director for the Park and other personnel appropriate to carry out its statutory responsibilities, 12 M.R.S.A. § 904 (1964).

In late November 1974 an aggregate of some 3,300 acres in the southwest portion of the Park suffered a severe blowdown apparently caused by a combination of natural conditions, including extreme saturation of the grounds, very heavy, wet snows, and extraordinarily high winds. After receiving the report of a professional aerial survey of the affected areas and after discussion among the Authority members and with members of the Baxter Park Advisory Committee, including Governor Baxter's nearest living relative, the Authority hired a consulting forester, Vladek Kolman, ⁹ to evaluate the blowdown damage and prepare a cleanup program for the affected areas. Mr. Kolman's report followed his observation, on foot and from the air, of the areas affected by the blowdown, and for reasons that he stated in the report and expanded upon in testimony before the court below, he recommended the removal of the blowdown from all but some 300 acres. His reasons for this cleanup program included the necessity of restoring the forest soil in the blowdown areas to its original horizontal position in order to enhance the regeneration of the blowdown stands, avoidance of insect infestation, reduction of fire danger, and protection of water quality and fish life. After published notice, the Authority held a public hearing at Kidney Pond Camps in Baxter State Park on September 9, 1975, following which the Authority voted unanimously to proceed with the cleanup operations recommended by Mr. Kolman. The Authority then proceeded to solicit bids for the removal of dead and dying trees in areas designated by the Kolman report. The Authority encountered considerable difficulty in obtaining bids, apparently principally because of the extensive limitations that the proposed contract would impose upon contractors' operations in order to protect the environment. Finally, a bid of Stanley Sproul Company was accepted by the Authority for a single blowdown area consisting of about 510 acres, and pursuant to the contract Sproul began work in the Park in early January 1976. The Sproul operations, however, were apparently quickly suspended with the commencement of hearings in this proceeding.

The complaint in this action, filed on November 20, 1976, sought, inter alia, an injunction restraining the Baxter State Park Authority from proceeding with the cleanup. The Superior Court held a hearing on the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction on January 15, 1976, and a hearing jointly on their request for preliminary and permanent relief on February 26 and 27, 1976. Without entering any preliminary injunction, the Superior Court, on August 24, 1976, issued its final decision, recognizing the authority of the Baxter State Park Authority to clean, protect, and restore the Park from the blowdown, but enjoining it from carrying out the cleanup in the manner proposed, particularly from using heavy equipment. Although the Authority chose not to go ahead with cleaning the blowdown areas in the restricted manner permitted by the Superior Court's order, plaintiffs took a timely appeal, and the defendants cross-appealed.

On this appeal by the plaintiffs and the cross-appeal by the defendants, we must on the merits address two principal questions: (1) Did the Superior Court err in holding that the 1955 interpretation act may be looked to in construing the intent of the prior deeds of trust given by Governor Baxter and accepted by the State of Maine; and (2) Did the Superior Court err in concluding that the plan adopted by the Baxter State Park Authority for cleaning and restoring the blowdown areas exceeded what was permissible under the applicable deeds of trust as so construed? We find no error on either score, and accordingly we deny both the appeal and the cross-appeal and affirm the judgment below.

I. Standing

A threshold question demands our attention: In all the circumstances present here, do the five individuals who are the plaintiffs have standing to maintain this action? To answer that inquiry, we must first identify the nature of the legal relationship which Governor Baxter's gifts created among the State, the people of Maine, and the Park.

No one reading the deeds of trust and Governor Baxter's transmittal letters is left with the slightest doubt of his intention to create a charitable trust with respect to the land he conveyed to the State of Maine. The State is specifically named trustee of the land, as well as the associated funds, and,...