Murphy v. Department of Natural Resources

• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida
• Writing for the Court: JAMES LAWRENCE KING
• Citation: Murphy v. Department of Natural Resources, 837 F.Supp. 1217 (S.D. Fla. 1993)
• Decision Date: 08 November 1993
• Docket Number: No. 93-10039-CIV.,93-10039-CIV.
• Parties: George MURPHY, an individual, and Carrib Isle Association, Inc., a Florida corporation, Plaintiffs, v. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, an Agency of the State of Florida, and the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, an Official Board of the State of Florida, Defendants.

837 F. Supp. 1217

George MURPHY, an individual, and Carrib Isle Association, Inc., a Florida corporation, Plaintiffs, v. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, an Agency of the State of Florida, and the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, an Official Board of the State of Florida, Defendants.

No. 93-10039-CIV.

United States District Court, S.D. Florida.

November 8, 1993.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Michael Barnes, Key West, FL, for plaintiffs.

John W. Costigan, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Dept. of Environmental Protection, Tallahassee, FL, for defendants.

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO DISMISS

JAMES LAWRENCE KING, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE comes before the Court on Defendants' Motion to Dismiss with Prejudice, after full briefing and oral argument.

I. Factual Background and Legal Posture

This action was filed by a group of plaintiffs seeking a declaratory judgment that certain Florida statutes are unconstitutional. Plaintiffs are attempting to avoid eviction from their floating homes on "Houseboat Row", bordering the island of Key West. Defendants point out that the occupants of these houseboats have signed leases with the City of Key West. The leases provide for automatic termination thirty days after the City offers the houseboat residents dockage space at the City's Garrison Bight Marina. Construction on Garrison Bight Marina has been completed, and Plaintiffs allege that Defendants have threatened to evict Plaintiffs from their floating residences. Plaintiffs question the validity of the leases, including the provision calling for termination upon an offer of space at Garrison Bight Marina. However, Plaintiffs also correctly point out that the validity of the leases is not the issue before the Court in this case.

At issue in this case is whether the Defendants are prevented by Federal law from evicting Plaintiffs. Specifically, Plaintiffs have asked the Court to pass on the constitutionality of sections 253.67 through 253.71 of the Florida Statutes. These statutes establish a procedure for State leasing of submerged lands and the water columns above them.¹ Plaintiffs assert that these statutes treat the State of Florida's interest in the water column above submerged land as an ownership interest, and Plaintiffs argue that this renders the statutes unconstitutional because a State's control over the water column is narrowly circumscribed by Federal law.

II. Historical and Legislative Background of Coastal and Submerged Lands

Under English law, all navigable waters and the land beneath them were held in trust by the sovereign for the benefit of the public. See Merrill-Stevens Co. v. Durkee, 62 Fla. 549, 57 So. 428, 431 (1911); State v. Black River Phosphate Co., 32 Fla. 82, 13 So. 640, 643 (1893). This arrangement has become known as the Public Trust Doctrine. Martin v. Lessee of Waddell, 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 367, 410-411, 10 L.Ed. 997 (1842). States such as Florida, which joined the Union after the original thirteen, acquired from the Federal Government rights in the lands within the State, including the lands between the high and low tide marks and the water that periodically covers it. United States v. Kaiser Aetna, 408 F.Supp. 42, 48 (D.Haw. 1976), aff'd in part, rev'd in part on other grounds, 584 F.2d 378 (9th Cir.1978), rev'd on other grounds, 444 U.S. 164, 100 S.Ct. 383, 62 L.Ed.2d 332 (1979); see also MerrillStevens, 57 So. at 431; State ex rel. Ellis v. Gerbing, 56 Fla. 603, 47 So. 353, 356 (1908). In Florida, these lands are held in the public trust by the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund. Fla.Stat.Ann. § 253.01 (West Supp.1993); see also Fla. Const. art. X, § 11 (incorporating the Public Trust Doctrine).

At issue in the instant controversy are lands beyond the low tide mark that remain submerged at all times. Florida and the other coastal States acquired rights in the submerged lands by the Submerged Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. § 1301, et seq. (1986 & West Supp.1993) ("SLA"). The SLA provides that:

(1) title to and ownership of the lands beneath navigable waters within the boundaries of the respective States, and the natural resources within such lands and waters, and (2) the right and power to manage, administer, lease, develop, and use the said lands and natural resources all in accordance with applicable State law ... are hereby vested in and assigned to the respective States....

43 U.S.C. § 1311(a). The SLA designates the seaward boundary of each State as three miles from its coastline. 43 U.S.C. § 1312. The SLA places important restrictions on the grant of these rights to the States. It provides that:

The United States retains all its navigational servitude and rights in and powers of regulation and control of said lands and navigable waters for the constitutional purposes of commerce, navigation, national defense, and international affairs, all of which shall be paramount to, but shall not be deemed to include, proprietary rights of ownership, or the rights of management, administration, leasing, use, and development of the lands and natural resources which are specifically recognized, confirmed, established, and vested in and assigned to the respective States....

43 U.S.C. § 1314(a).

This case focuses on the scope of the rights the SLA grants in the waters above the submerged lands and whether the rights the Federal Government has reserved to itself render sections 253.67 through 253.71 of the Florida Statutes unconstitutional.

III. Standard of Review

In this inquiry, Plaintiffs urge this Court to employ a strict scrutiny analysis. They point out that the SLA designates navigation as a "constitutional purpose". Plaintiffs argue: "The Act clearly recognizes that navigation is not a mere privilege, it is a Constitutional right. Therefore, it is a fundamental right which requires strict scrutiny of local legislation." Pls.' Mem. in Opp. at 8 (emphasis in original); see also id. at 15.

Assuming that the right to navigation is a constitutional right in the sense in which Plaintiffs use the term, this does not automatically make it a fundamental right meriting strict scrutiny. In fact, this Court is unaware of any case that has employed a strict-scrutiny analysis in addressing the right to navigation, hindrances to navigation, or navigation under the SLA. Strict scrutiny has not been employed by courts reviewing federal actions. See, e.g., United States v. Chandler-Dunbar Water Power Co., 229 U.S. 53, 66, 33 S.Ct. 667, 673, 57 L.Ed. 1063 (1913) ("There is no room for a judicial review of the judgment of Congress that the flow of the river is not in excess of any possible need of navigation"; "Congress did not act arbitrarily in determining that `for the purposes of navigation of said waters and the waters connected therewith,' the whole flow of the stream should be devoted exclusively to that end") (emphasis added); Scranton v. Wheeler, 179 U.S. 141, 162-63, 21 S.Ct. 48, 57, 45 L.Ed. 126 (1900) ("Whether navigation upon waters over which Congress may exert its authority requires improvement at all, or improvement in a particular way, are matters wholly within its discretion; and the judiciary is without power to control or defeat the will of Congress, so long as that branch of the Government does not transcend the limits established by the supreme law of the land"); Gibson v. United States, 166 U.S. 269, 272, 17 S.Ct. 578, 579, 41 L.Ed. 996 (1897) (holding that it is within Congress' power to determine what is and what is not an obstruction to navigation, and deferring to congressional findings that a particular project is in aid of navigation, be it diverting water from one channel to another, constructing a lighthouse, or closing certain channels to the passage of navigators—even though "structures deemed by congress to be in aid of navigation might in fact be in obstruction of certain methods of navigation of the particular stream"). Nor has strict scrutiny been employed by courts passing on the permissibility of State actions. See, e.g., Hawaiian Navigable Waters Preservation Soc. v. State of Hawaii, 823 F.Supp. 766, 769-70 (D.Haw.1993) (outlining the traditional standard of review when considering a motion to dismiss a suit grounded on, inter alia, the Submerged Lands Act).

In the instant case, this Court is not required to apply strict scrutiny to the State's actions as they affect navigation.

IV. Discussion

The Court must consider whether sections 253.67 through 253.71 of the Florida Statutes encroach upon the authority reserved to the Federal Government by the SLA and whether these statutes are otherwise preempted by Federal action.

The Supreme Court has characterized the transfer of rights by the SLA, as a grant of "submerged lands and waters". United States v. California, 436 U.S. 32, 37, 98 S.Ct. 1662, 1664, 56 L.Ed.2d 94 (1978). In addition, the Congressional intent in passing the law is equally applicable to the waters as to the land; that intent was to further the Public Trust Doctrine by decentralizing management of the coastal areas, thereby fostering management more adapted to the prevailing needs of the area. See Submerged Lands Act, H.R.Rep. No. 215, 83d Cong., 1st Sess. (1953), reprinted in 1953 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1385, 1436-37 (indicating that States should control submerged lands because their interests are "so intimately connected with local activities"; and stating that, "any conflict of interest arising from the use of the submerged lands should be and can best be solved by local authorities").

By the terms of the SLA, the Federal Government expressly preserved navigational servitude, and it reserved the right to preempt any State law that impacted commerce, navigation, national defense, or international affairs. See 43 U.S.C. § 1314(a), set forth above.

A. Navigational Servitude

Navigational servitude is a concept that arises from the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution. United States v. Twin City Power Co., 350 U.S....