Guimont v. Clarke
Guimont v. Clarke
Opinion of the Court
The issue in this case is the constitutionality of the Mobile Home Relocation Assistance Act, RCW 59.21, as amended in 1990. See Laws of 1989, ch. 201; Laws of 1990, ch. 171. When a mobile home park is closed, this law requires the park owner to contribute money toward the tenants' relocation costs. The Thurston County Superior Court struck down the law as unconstitutional under a number of different theories. We affirm on the grounds that the law violates the park owners' substantive due process rights.
I
Background
Mobile home park residents generally own their own mobile homes, but they lease from the park owner the "pads" upon which the mobile homes rest. Because of their dual capacities as owners and renters, these residents face particularly dif
In response to this problem, the Legislature passed the Mobile Home Relocation Assistance Act (Act) in 1989, and amended the Act in 1990.
The park owner becomes responsible for paying up to the full amount of the assistance obligations if "there are insufficient moneys in the [relocation] fund . . .." Laws of 1990, ch. 171, § 2(6). Tenants who do not qualify as low income are not entitled to receive any assistance from the relocation fund. However, the park owners must still pay these tenants the same amount the owners are required to pay directly to low income tenants. Laws of 1990, ch. 171, § 2(7).
The relocation fund is in the custody of the State Treasurer and is administered by the Department of Community Development. Laws of 1990, ch. 171, § 5(1), (4). The relocation fund may be used only for paying mobile home relocation assistance, although certain surplus funds may be transferred to the mobile home park purchase fund established in RCW 59.22. Laws of 1990, ch. 171, § 5(1), (2). The relocation fund may receive money from three sources. Laws of 1990, ch. 171, § 5(1). First, the Legislature may directly appropriate money for the fund, although there is no evidence the Legislature has yet done so. Second, the Legislature in 1990 enacted a $65 fee on transactions transferring mobile home
A group of park owners sued the Director of the Department of Community Development (Department) in Thurston County Superior Court. They sought a declaratory judgment that the Act was unconstitutional and requested a permanent injunction against enforcement of the Act by the Department. The park owners did not seek monetary damages.
The Superior Court granted summary judgment in favor of the park owners and struck down the Act as unconstitutional. The court ruled the Act violated the park owners' constitutional right prohibiting the taking of property without just compensation and violated the park owners' rights to due process and equal protection. The court permanently enjoined the Department from enforcing the Act.
The Department appealed to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals partially stayed the Superior Court's injunction. The appeal was transferred to this court pursuant to RAP 4.3.
II
Issues
At issue in this case is the constitutionality of requiring mobile home park owners to pay a portion of their tenants' relocation costs when the owners convert their parks to some other use. Specifically, does the Act result in private property being taken for public use, requiring the payment of just compensation under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments? Also, does the Act deprive the park owners of property without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment?
III
Analysis
The analytical framework for resolving these issues was developed in Presbytery of Seattle v. King Cy., 114 Wn.2d 320, 787 P.2d 907, cert. denied, 498 U.S. 911, 112 L. Ed. 2d
We subsequently refined and applied the Presbytery analysis in Sintra, Inc. v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 1, 829 P.2d 765, cert. denied, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598 (1992) and Robinson v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 34, 830 P.2d 318, cert. denied, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598 (1992). Subsequent to oral argument in this case, however, the United States Supreme Court issued a takings decision in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Coun.,_U.S. _, 120 L. Ed. 2d 798, 112 S. Ct. 2886 (1992), and supplemental briefing on Lucas was submitted to this court by the parties. Thus, to resolve the takings claim in this case, we must first summarize the Presbytery takings framework and then discuss the impact of Lucas on that framework before proceeding to resolve the park owners' takings claim.
A. Takings
1. Presbytery Analysis.
Presbytery sets out two threshold questions to determine if additional takings analysis is necessary. The first question is whether the challenged regulation safeguards the public interest in health, safety, the environment or the fiscal integrity of an area, or whether the regulation "seeks
If the regulation merely protects the public health, safety, and welfare (question 1), and the regulation does not destroy a fundamental attribute of ownership (question 2), then no taking occurs, and the court proceeds with determining whether the regulation violates substantive due process if the regulation is challenged on both takings and due process grounds. Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 330; Sintra, 119 Wn.2d at 12-13; Robinson, 119 Wn.2d at 50. However, if the regulation either goes beyond preventing a public harm to producing a public benefit, or infringes upon a fundamental attribute of property ownership, further takings analysis is necessary. Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 330; Robinson, 119 Wn.2d at 50.
Once a court determines a regulation is susceptible to a takings challenge, the court next asks whether the regulation substantially advances legitimate state interests. If it does not, the regulation is a taking. Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 333; Robinson, 119 Wn.2d at 50. If the regulation does substantially advance a legitimate state interest, the court's next analysis depends upon whether the challenge to the regulation is a facial challenge or an "as applied" challenge involving the application of the regulation to specific property. Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 333; Robinson, 119 Wn.2d at 50. Under a facial challenge to a statute regulating the uses that can be made of property, the landowner must show that the mere enactment of the statute denies the owner of all economically viable use of his or her land. Keystone Bitu
2. Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council.
The United States Supreme Court recently decided Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Coun.,_U.S._, 120 L. Ed. 2d 798, 112 S. Ct. 2886 (1992), which addressed the issue of whether a land use regulation accomplished an unconstitutional taking of property under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. In Lucas, petitioner David Lucas purchased two residential lots on the Isle of Palms in South Carolina, where he intended to build a single-family home on each lot. Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 807. Two years later, South Carolina enacted the Beachfront Management Act, which prohibited the construction of occupiable improvements in certain beachfront areas. Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 808. That act had the direct effect of barring Lucas from erecting any permanent habitable structures on his property. Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 807. Lucas brought suit, alleging the act
The trial court agreed with Lucas. The Supreme Court of South Carolina, however, reversed on the grounds that the legislation advanced a legitimate public interest in preventing erosion to coastal zones caused by new construction. Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 809. The court held when a regulation on the use of property is designed to prevent serious public harm, no compensation is owing regardless of the regulation's effect on the property's value. Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 809. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed. Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 823.
In analyzing Lucas' takings claim, the Supreme Court identified two discrete categories of regulatory action that are "compensable without case-specific inquiry into the public interest advanced in support of the restraint". Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 812. The first category includes challenges to any regulation that results in a "physical invasion" of the owner's property. Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 812. In this category, a regulation that compels a property owner to suffer a "physical invasion" or "occupation"
3. Impact of Lucas on the Presbytery Takings Analysis.
The Supreme Court's holding in Lucas requires a reordering of the Presbytery threshold analysis to accommodate the two Lucas categories of takings that do not require case-specific analysis of either the legitimacy of the State's interest or the purpose of the regulation. These categories are "physical invasions" and "total takings".
In squaring Presbytery with the Lucas analysis, both "physical invasions" and "total takings", as those terms are used in Lucas, are most appropriately analyzed under the second prong of the Presbytery threshold inquiry, in which the court examines whether a regulation infringes on a fundamental attribute of ownership. See Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 329-30.
As a result, when a landowner alleges either a "physical taking" or a "total taking", the owner may demonstrate at the outset dining the threshold inquiry that the regulation results in a "physical invasion" of his or her property, or deprives the property of all "economically beneficial or productive use". In addition, in light of Lucas, the "total takings" category must necessarily include facial challenges to land use regulations in which landowners allege the regulation adversely affects the economic use of their property. Lucas dictates this result because in this facial challenge, just as in a "total takings" challenge, the landowner must prove the statute on its face deprives him or her of all economically viable use of the property. See Keystone Coal, 480 U.S. at 495. Such a facial challenge to a land use regulation is in effect a "total takings" challenge. Previously, under Presbytery, analysis of the economic impact in a facial
Because the plaintiff must have the opportunity at the outset to prove a "physical invasion" or "total taking", Lucas necessitates that we reorder the first two steps of our Presbytery threshold test. As noted above, we previously asked under the threshold test whether a regulation implicated fundamental attributes of ownership after analyzing the purpose of the statute in preventing harm or conferring a benefit. According to Lucas, challenges implicating fundamental attributes of ownership, such as "total takings" or "physical invasions", are subject to categorical treatment and do not require analysis of the purpose of the regulation or the legitimacy of the State's interest. See Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 812-13. Therefore, based on Lucas, we must analyze at the outset of the Presbytery test whether fundamental attributes of ownership are impaired through "physical invasions" or "total takings", without engaging in any harm-versus-benefit analysis or examining the legitimacy of the governmental interest.
This requirement of Lucas can easily be squared with our Presbytery analysis by simply reordering the two questions
This reordering of the Presbytery threshold test is also in accord with the United States Supreme Court's recent analysis in Yee v. Escondido,_U.S._, 118 L. Ed. 2d 153, 112 S. Ct. 1522 (1992). Yee acknowledges that physical takings — and by analogy "total takings" under Lucas — are subject to different analysis from other regulatoiy takings:
Most of our cases interpreting the [takings] Clause fall within two distinct classes. Where the government authorizes a physical occupation of property (or actually takes title), the Takings Clause generally requires compensation. But where the government merely regulates the use of property, compensation is required only if considerations such as the purpose of the regulation or the extent to which it deprives the owner of the economic use of the property suggest that the regulation has unfairly singled out the property owner to bear a burden that should be borne by the public as a whole. The first category of cases requires courts to apply a clear rule; the second necessarily entails complex factual assessments of the purposes and economic effects of government actions.
(Citations omitted.) Yee, 118 L. Ed. 2d at 162. Thus, under Lucas, our takings analysis of land use regulations is revised to reflect the two categorical takings, "physical invasions" and "total takings", as follows.
Under the first threshold analysis, if the landowner proves the regulation results in a "total taking", the State will then have the opportunity to rebut this claim by identifying common law principles of state nuisance and property law that prohibit the uses the landowner now intends in the circumstances in which the property is presently found.
If the landowner alleges less than a "physical invasion" or "total taking" and if a fundamental attribute of ownership is not otherwise implicated, the court proceeds to the second of the Presbytery threshold questions. Under the second inquiry, we ask whether the challenged regulation safeguards the public interest in health, safety, the environment or the fiscal integrity of an area, or whether the regulation "seeks less to prevent a harm than to impose on those regulated the requirement of providing an affirmative public benefit".
4. Application of Takings Analysis.
Turning to this case, the Department contends the trial court erred in granting summary judgment because the Mobile Home Relocation Assistance Act does not result in an unconstitutional taking. The park owners contend the trial court's ruling was correct because the Act violates both federal and state constitutional provisions prohibiting the State from taking property unless just compensation is paid. See U.S. Const. amend. 5 (as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment); Const. art. 1, § 16 (amend. 9). However, the park owners have not briefed the relevant Gunwall factors necessary for determining whether an independent analysis of the state constitution is proper. See State v. Gunwall, 106 Wn.2d 54, 720 P.2d 808, 76 A.L.R.4th 517 (1986). Accordingly, we will analyze only the federal constitution; we will not address the park owners' arguments that the state constitution provides greater protection. See, e.g., World Wide Video, Inc. v. Tukwila, 117 Wn.2d 382, 390, 816 P.2d 18 (1991), cert. denied,_U.S._, 118 L. Ed. 2d 391, 112 S. Ct. 1672 (1992).
Under a facial challenge to a land , use regulation, the landowner must show that the mere enactment of the regulation constitutes a taking. Keystone Bituminous Coal Ass'n v. DeBenedictis, 480 U.S. 470, 493, 94 L. Ed. 2d 472, 107 S. Ct. 1232 (1987). The test for a facial challenge is a high one, in part because the landowner has not presented any evidence about the particular impact of the regulation on his or her parcel of land. Thus, to succeed in proving that a statute on its face effects a taking by regulating the uses that can be made of property, the landowner must show that the mere enactment of the statute denies the owner of all economically viable use of the property.
In this case, the park owners' complaint can only be read as mounting a facial rather than an "as applied" challenge to the Act. It does not address the Act's impact on any specific piece of property. See Robinson, 119 Wn.2d at 50. Moreover, the Department's civil appeal statement and the park owners' answer to the civil appeal statement confirm this case involves only a facial challenge. Despite making a facial challenge, the park owners have made no attempt to show the regulation of their property's use under the Act denies them all economically viable use of their property. As a result, the park owners' facial challenge fails insofar as the Act is challenged as a regulation affecting their economic use of their property.
The park owners also contend the Act constitutes a taking by physical "invasion" or occupation. The park owners argue the Act forces them to keep their parks open, imposing the park tenants upon them as unwelcome, permanent occupants on their land. Governmental regulations resulting in physical invasion or occupation of property or regulations authorizing a third party to occupy the property are "takings" regardless of how minor the occupation or how weighty the public interest involved. Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U.S. 419, 426, 73 L. Ed. 2d 868, 102 S. Ct. 3164 (1982). Such "physical invasions" may implicate a
To prove that the government has effected a physical taking through its regulation, the landowner must show that the regulation "requires the landowner to submit to the physical occupation of [his or her] land". Yee v. Escondido, _U.S._, 118 L. Ed. 2d 153, 165, 112 S. Ct. 1522 (1992). For example, the government has compelled a physical invasion of property by flooding a landowner's property or by requiring the landowner to allow the physical installation of a cable on the owner's property. Yee, 118 L. Ed. 2d at 165 (citing Pumpelly v. Green Bay Co., 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 166, 20 L. Ed. 557 (1872); Loretto, 458 U.S. at 440).
In a case similar to this one involving regulation of mobile homes, the United States Supreme Court held a local rent control ordinance did not amount to a physical taking of park owners' property because it did not require the landowner to submit to the physical occupation of his or her land. Yee, 118 L. Ed. 2d at 165. In holding the regulation did not result in a physical taking, the Court stated:
[The park owners] voluntarily rented their land to mobile home owners. At least on the face of the regulatory scheme, neither the City nor the State compels [park owners], once they have rented their property to tenants, to continue doing so. To the contrary, the Mobilehome Residency Law provides that a park owner who wishes to change the use of his land may evict his tenants, albeit with six or twelve months notice. Put bluntly, no government has required any physical invasion of [the park owners'] property. [The park owners'] tenants were invited by [the park owners], not forced upon them by the government.
(Citations omitted.) Yee, 118 L. Ed. 2d at 165.
In Yee, the park owners could still evict the tenants and change the use of their land. Thus, the Supreme Court held the rent control ordinance in that case was only a regulation
Like Yee, the park owners' physical takings argument in this case lacks merit. The Act on its face does not force park owners to allow others to occupy their land. Rather, the park owners have voluntarily rented space to the mobile home owners, and the Act itself does not compel the park owners to continue this relationship. Indeed, the Act still allows the park owners to terminate their tenancies, close their parks, and sell their land. Thus, the park owners have failed to show that the Act on its face requires any "physical invasion" of their property.
Accordingly, we hold the trial court erred in ruling the Act results in an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation.
B. Substantive Due Process
Even if a regulation is not susceptible to a takings challenge, under our Presbytery framework, it is next subject to substantive due process scrutiny for reasonableness. Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 330. In this case, the Department contends the trial court erred in granting summary judgment on the grounds the Act violated the park owners' due process rights. The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from "depriv[ing] any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. . .." U.S. Const, amend. 14, § 1.
In this case, we must first decide whether the Act is aimed at achieving a legitimate public purpose. The purpose of the Act is to aid mobile home owners with relocation expenses when a mobile home park is closed. The State has a legitimate interest in addressing the statewide problem of relocation expenses associated with mobile home park closings. Making funds available to mobile home owners who are forced to relocate substantially advances that interest.
Under the second due process question, we must determine whether the means used are reasonably necessary to achieve that purpose. Whether the means employed are reasonably necessary to achieving the Act's purpose is debatable. Certainly, providing mobile home owners with relocation assistance would be a reasonably necessary step in achieving the Act's purpose. The more difficult issue here is whether it is reasonably necessary to require the assistance to be paid by the closing park owner. To assist in determining whether these means used by the Act are reasonably necessary in all regards, we must turn to the third due process question, that of undue oppression.
We determine if a statute is unduly oppressive by examining a number of nonexclusive factors to weigh the fairness of the burden being placed on the property owner:
On the public's side, the seriousness of the public problem, the extent to which the owner's land contributes to it, the degree to which the proposed regulation solves it and the feasibility of less oppressive solutions would all be relevant. On the owner's side, the amount and percentage of value loss, the extent of remaining uses, past, present and future uses, temporary or permanent nature of the regulation, the extent to which the owner should have anticipated such regulation and how feasible it is for the owner to alter present or currently planned uses.
Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 331 (citing Stoebuck, San Diego Gas: Problems, Pitfalls and a Better Way, 25 J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 3, 33 (1983)).
We begin by examining the factors on the public's side. The Act represents the Legislature's recognition that the problems caused by the closure of mobile home parks are serious. We too note the seriousness of these problems. Mobile home parks provide a source of low-cost housing for the elderly and those with low incomes. These people often cannot afford relocation costs. Yet by requiring the closing park owner to pay these costs, which can amount to extremely high sums of money, the State is placing the burden of solving housing problems on the shoulders of a few. In Robinson v. Seattle, supra,
The problems of homelessness and a lack of low income housing in Seattle are in part a function of how all Seattle landowners are using their property. . . . This court has already said of the [housing ordinance] that solving the problem of the decrease in affordable rental housing in the city of Seattle is a burden to be shouldered commonly and not imposed on individual property owners.
(Italics ours.) Robinson, 119 Wn.2d at 55. See also Sintra, 119 Wn.2d at 22. Likewise, in this case, the costs of relocating mobile home owners, like the related and more general problems of maintaining an adequate supply of low income housing, are more properly the burden of society as a whole than of individual property owners. While the closing of a mobile home park is the immediate cause of the need for relocation assistance, it is the general unavailability of low income housing and the low income status of many of the mobile home owners that is the more fundamental reason why the relocation assistance is necessary. An individual park owner who desires to close a park is not significantly more responsible for these general society-wide problems than is the rest of the population. Requiring society as a whole to shoulder the costs of relocation assistance represents a far less oppressive solution to the problem.
We next turn to the factors reflecting the legislation's effect on property owners. The amount of money a park owner must pay under the Act is substantial. In fact, under a worst case scenario, the size of the park owner's obligation is staggering. If the relocation assistance fund lacks sufficient resources to pay its share of the burden, the Act leaves park owners hable for paying the entire amount of the relocation assistance — up to $7,500 for each tenant in the park. For example, if a mobile home park has 100 pads, the park owner could be responsible for paying $750,000 solely because the owner wants to exercise his or her right to close
We also note the Act's provisions are permanent in nature. There is no indication the park owners could have anticipated the Act's requirements when they opened their parks; certainly the Act itself did not give them any grace period in allowing them to decide whether to continue to use their property as a mobile home park before the Act went into effect. Thus, park owners were given no opportunity to alter their present or planned uses without subjecting themselves to the Act's onerous obligations.
In this regard, we deem it important that the increased costs imposed by the Act attach to the activity of leaving a business rather than of entering or conducting the business. The Department has cited a number of different cases in which this court has upheld the constitutionality of legislation requiring businesses to pay money to others, yet each of these cases involved costs incident either to entering or conducting the business. See, e.g., Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., 428 U.S. 1, 49 L. Ed. 2d 752, 96 S. Ct. 2882 (1976) (addressing a statute requiring mine operators to pay compensation for black lung disease); State ex rel. Davis-Smith Co. v. Clausen, 65 Wash. 156, 117 P. 1101 (1911) (analyzing a statute requiring employers to pay workers' compensation). Owners of businesses in these earlier cases had the option of avoiding these costs by closing down and using their property for other purposes. The imposition of costs on closing a business cannot be avoided in this manner.
C. Severability
The remaining issue concerns the Act's severability. The Department argues even if the Act is unconstitutional in part, other portions of the Act are valid and should be severed from the unconstitutional portions. The test for sever-ability is whether
the invalid provisions are unseverable and it cannot reasonably be believed that the legislature would have passed the one without the other, ... or, alternatively, whether the elimination of the unconstitutional portion so destroys the act as to render it incapable of accomplishing the legislative purposes.
(Citation omitted.) State v. Anderson, 81 Wn.2d 234, 236, 501 P.2d 184 (1972); see Seattle v. State, 103 Wn.2d 663, 677, 694 P.2d 641 (1985).
In this case, the Act does contain a severability clause, which states that a decision invalidating any provision of the Act will not affect the remainder of the Act. Laws of 1989, ch. 201, § 17. "A severability clause is often given great weight in determining the Legislature's intent to make different parts of a statute severable." Seattle, 103 Wn.2d at 678. Nevertheless, in this case, the remaining provisions of the statute are unseverable under the Anderson test because the elimination of the unconstitutional provisions renders the remainder of the Act "incapable of accomplishing the legislative purposes". Anderson, 81 Wn.2d at 236. For example, the Department argues that a portion of the money to be used for relocation assistance is not paid by the closing park owner, but instead is paid from the collection of fees on the transfer of mobile homes. See Laws of 1990, ch. 171, §§ 5(1), 6(1). According to the Department, the transfer fees are valid and may be severed from the unconstitutional portions of the Act. In the 1991 amendments to the Act, however, the Legislature placed a termination date of July 1, 1992, on the collection of these fees. Laws of 1991, ch. 327, § 13(3); see
Accordingly, we conclude the Department's severability argument is without merit.
IV
Conclusion
We hold the trial court erred in ruling the Act results in an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation. However, the trial court correctly concluded the Act violates the park owners' Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process rights. Thus, we hold the Mobile Home Relocation Assistance Act, codified at RCW 59.21, enacted by Laws of 1989, ch. 201, and as amended by Laws of 1990, ch. 171, is unconstitutional. We affirm the trial court's order granting summary judgment, enjoining enforcement of the Act, and awarding the plaintiffs judgment against the defendant for their costs herein.
Andersen, C.J., and Brachtenbach, Dolliver, Durham, Smith, and Guy, JJ., concur.
The Legislature amended the Act again in 1991. See Laws of 1991, ch. 327. The 1991 amendments are not at issue in this case, and the parties have not presented any argument as to their effect. Regardless, the amendments do not appear to substantially change the Act and do not affect our analysis in this case.
The opinion in Lucas is somewhat unclear about whether Lucas brought a facial or "as applied” challenge to the South Carolina statute. The majority opinion does not explicitly state which type of challenge is at issue, but appears to treat it as a challenge to the face of the statute and applies the rule for a facial takings challenge:
The cases say, repeatedly and unmistakably, that" '[t]he test to be applied in considering [a] facial [takings] challenge is fairly straightforward. A statute*597 regulating the uses that can be made of property effects a taking if it "denies an owner economically viable use of his land."'"
(Some italics ours.) Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 813 n.6 (citing Keystone Coal, 480 U.S. at 495 (quoting Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Ass’n, 452 U.S. 264, 294-96, 69 L. Ed. 2d 1, 101 S. Ct. 2352 (1981))). However, the trial court analyzed the particular effect of the statute as applied to Lucas's specific property, and the Supreme Court of South Carolina explicitly stated that Lucas brought an "as applied" challenge. Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Coun., 304 S.C. 376, 377-79, 404 S.E.2d 895, 895-96 (1991), rev’d,_U.S._, 120 L. Ed. 2d 798, 112 S. Ct. 2886 (1992). See also Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 829 n.4 (Blackmun, J., dissenting) ("Here, of course, Lucas has brought an as-applied challenge").
A "physical invasion" or "occupation" may be either temporary or permanent, and may result in either a total or partial invasion. According to Lucas, categorical treatment is required "at least with regard to permanent invasions". (Italics ours.) Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 812. Likewise, the Supreme Court has also stated that "temporary" takings are subject to categorical treatment where the regulation denies the owner all use of his or her land. First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. County of Los Angeles, 482 U.S. 304, 96 L. Ed. 2d 250, 107 S.
This question is one of state law. Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 822. Lucas notes that this inquiry
will ordinarily entail. . . analysis of, among other things, the degree of harm to public lands and resources, or adjacent private property, posed by the claimant's proposed activities, see, e.g., Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 826, 827, the social value of the claimant's activities and their suitability to the locality in question, see, e.g., id., §§ 828(a) and (b), 831, and the relative ease with which the alleged harm can be avoided through measures taken by the claimant and the government (or adjacent private landowners) alike, see, e.g., id., §§ 827(e), 828(c), 830.
Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 822. However, courts must look to their own state's existing nuisance and property law in making this determination.
Several parties and the concurrence argue this part of the Presbytery threshold test is undermined by language in Lucas questioning harm versus benefit analysis. See Lucas, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 819. Curiously, the concurrence uses this language as support for a broad insulation doctrine, concurrence at 620 n.13, whereas respondents argue the same language should be read as a complete rejection of any insulation doctrine. We decline to address their arguments, however, which go beyond what is necessary to decide the narrow issue of a facial takings challenge posed in this case. Moreover, it would be premature to begin dismantling our takings framework, carefully crafted in Presbytery, Sintra, and Robinson, without more definitive guidance on this issue from the United States Supreme Court. Therefore, we decline to further modify our framework at this time and reserve discussion of additional modifications, if any, until we are presented with a case that squarely addresses the issue.
Not every infringement on a fundamental attribute of property ownership necessarily constitutes a "taking". Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 333 n.21. See, e.g.,
In addition to facial challenges to regulations that restrict the use of property, other types of facial challenges include, for example, those alleging that a regulation deprives an owner of a fundamental attribute of ownership or physically invades his or her land. See Settle, Regulatory Taking Doctrine in Washington: Now You See It, Now You Don't, 12 U. Puget Sound L. Rev. 339, 386-92 (1989).
The park owners also raise a facial challenge by alleging the Act does not substantially advance legitimate state interests no matter how it is applied. A regulation that does not substantially advance a legitimate state interest can effect a taking. Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 333. Such a facial challenge is ripe for review because the allegation does not depend on the extent to which the landowners are deprived of the economic use of their particular property or the extent to which they are compensated. Yee, 118 L. Ed. 2d at 169. However, the park owners' argument is without merit. The State has a legitimate interest in addressing the statewide problem of relocation expenses associated with mobile home park closings. Making funds available to mobile home owners who are forced to relocate substantially advances that interest.
The park owners also argue that the transfer of money required under the Act itself constitutes a physical taking. We disagree. A similar argument has been twice rejected by the United States Supreme Court. See Yee, 118 L. Ed. 2d at 166 (reduction in rent under mobile home residency law may "be said to transfer wealth from the one . . . regulated to another", but "in itself does not convert regulation into physical invasion"); United States v. Sperry Corp., 493 U.S. 52, 62 n.9, 107 L. Ed. 2d 290, 110 S. Ct. 387 (1989) (fee requirements do not constitute physical takings).
The Department argues no federal precedent supports this court's use of undue oppression as an independent third prong of substantive due process. This 3-prong substantive due process test was first used by the United States Supreme Court in Lawton v. Steele, 152 U.S. 133, 137, 38 L. Ed. 385, 14 S. Ct. 499 (1894). Although the Court in Lawton divided the test into only two parts, undue oppression was part of the analysis. Lawton, 152 U.S. at 137 (the means must be "reasonably necessary for the accomplishment of the purpose, and not unduly oppressive upon individuals"). (Italics ours.) The Court has continued to apply this 3-part test since Lawton and acknowledged the Lawton formulation is still valid in Goldblatt v. Hempstead, 369 U.S. 590, 8 L. Ed. 2d 130, 82 S. Ct. 987 (1962). Goldblatt does caution that the rule must not be applied with strict precision because "debatable questions as to reasonableness are not for the courts but for the legislature . . .". Goldblatt, 369 U.S. at 595 (quoting Sproles v. Binford, 286 U.S. 374, 388, 76 L. Ed. 1167, 52 S. Ct. 581 (1932)). Despite this deference to the Legislature, however, courts may still employ substantive due process analysis. See Moore v. East Cleveland, Ohio, 431 U.S. 494, 502, 52 L. Ed. 2d 531, 97 S. Ct. 1932 (1977) (affirming use of substantive due process to invalidate unreasonable city ordinance); Stoebuck, San Diego Gas: Problems, Pitfalls and a Better Way, 25 J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 3, 23-26 (1983). The "unduly oppressive" analysis merely provides a structure for determining the overall reasonableness of the means used to achieve the regulation's public purpose. See Comment, Testing the Constitutional Validity of Land Use Regulations: Substantive Due Process as a Superior Alternative to Takings Analysis, 57 Wash. L. Rev. 715, 718, 740 n.157 (1982). Recently, we invalidated a housing ordinance as violating substantive due process because it was unduly oppressive and therefore unreasonable. Robinson v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 34, 55, 830 P.2d 318, cert. denied, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598 (1992). The United States Supreme Court refused to grant certiorari in that case.
Concurring Opinion
(concurring) — While I concur in the majority's conclusion that the Mobile Home Relocation Assistance Act (Act) is unconstitutional as a violation of substantive due process, I write separately to highlight what I view as a troubling development in our takings law. In dicta, the majority has apparently accepted the notion that our recent decisions in Sintra, Inc. v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 1, 829 P.2d 765, cert. denied sub nom. Robinson v. Seattle,_U.S._, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598, 113 S. Ct. 676 (1992) and Robinson v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 34, 830 P.2d 318, cert. denied,_U.S. _, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598, 113 S. Ct. 676 (1992), effected a significant transformation of the takings analysis which we so carefully and painstakingly constructed in Orion Corp. v. State, 109 Wn.2d 621, 747 P.2d 1062 (1987), cert. denied, 486
I
The language in the majority which I find objectionable is dicta and as such is not binding on this court in subsequent cases. The plaintiffs have brought only a facial takings challenge against the Act, and the majority has correctly determined that no showing has been made of a complete deprivation of all economically viable use. Under the majority's analysis, this determination disposes of the plaintiffs' takings claims entirely. Consequently, those portions of the majority which otherwise describe our takings analysis are not necessary to the disposition of the case and are thus dicta. Even with this caveat in mind, however, I am still unable to join the majority opinion. For the sake of discussion in future cases an expression of my views may be helpful.
In Orion and Presbytery, this court developed a comprehensive framework for analyzing constitutional challenges to land use regulations. One of the critical features of that framework was the distinction it drew between challenges dealt with under the due process clause and challenges heard under the takings clause. The distinction was necessary because of conflict between two divergent lines of federal authority, one derived from Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U.S. 623, 31 L. Ed. 205, 8 S. Ct. 273 (1887), and the other from Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 67 L. Ed. 322, 43 S. Ct. 158 (1922).
In Mugler, the United States Supreme Court emphatically rejected the notion that the State must compensate landowners for police power regulations which happen to affect the value of private land.
A prohibition simply upon the use of property for purposes that are declared, by valid legislation, to be injurious to the*616 health, morals, or safety of the community, cannot, in any just sense, be deemed a taking or an appropriation of property for the public benefit.
123 U.S. at 668-69. In Pennsylvania Coal, without discussing Mugler, the United States Supreme Court apparently reversed field, stating cryptically that "while property may be regulated to a certain extent, if regulation goes too far it will be recognized as a taking." 260 U.S. at 415. The tension between Mugler and Pennsylvania Coal was evident, and has been identified as the source of decades of confusion in takings law.
In Orion Corp. v. State, 109 Wn.2d 621, 747 P.2d 1062 (1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1022, 100 L. Ed. 2d 227, 108 S. Ct. 1996 (1988) and Presbytery of Seattle v. King Cy., 114 Wn.2d 320, 787 P.2d 907, cert. denied, 498 U.S. 911, 112 L. Ed. 2d 238, 111 S. Ct. 284 (1990), we developed a careful resolution of the Mugler-Pennsylvania Coal problem by recognizing a critical difference between due process and takings challenges to land use regulations. We held in Orion that generally when a landowner challenges a land use regulation safeguarding "the public interest in health, the environment, or the fiscal integrity of the community", that is, a valid police power regulation, the landowner is limited to the due process remedy of invalidation of the offending regulation. Orion, 109 Wn.2d at 657. The chief exception to this rule was the cir
In Presbytery, we limited the Orion holding by recognizing that a land use regulation based on the police, power could be subject to takings challenges if the regulation in question "destroys one or more of the fundamental attributes of ownership — the right to possess, to exclude others and to dispose of property." Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 329-30. Together Orion and Presbytery thus described a simple rule for challenges to police power land use regulations: Such challenges were to be analyzed under the due process clause, unless the regulations were employed to enhance the value of publicly held property, or destroyed a fundamental attribute of property.
By clearly delineating the circumstances under which takings challenges would be permitted, the Orion-Presbytery test defused the basic tension between Mugler and Pennsylvania Coal.
[I]f local governments in the past had thought that enactment of a land use regulation might result in monetary awards, then "very likely no one would have proposed the planned unit development, the cluster zone, or the floating zone and even if those efforts had received the prior blessing of developers, it is highly unlikely that environmental con*618 cems or regulation of coastal and inland waterways would ever have been risked."
Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 332 (quoting Sallet, Regulatory "Takings" and Just Compensation: The Supreme Court's Search for a Solution Continues, 18 Urb. Law. 635, 636 (1986) (quoting Wright, Exclusionary Land Use Controls and the Taking Issue, 8 Hastings Const. L.Q. 545, 583 (1980-1981))). On the other, landowners were protected from land use regulations that go "too far" by the guaranty of due process. As the majority amply demonstrates today, that guaranty is hardly toothless.
The Orion and Presbytery approach to police power land use regulations has come to be known, somewhat inaptly, as the "insulation doctrine". It is so called because most ordinary land use regulations are "insulated" from takings challenges. The appellation is inapposite, however, because such regulations are not insulated from due process examination.
The majority, in dicta, has departed from this portion of the comprehensive structure erected in Orion Corp. v. State, 109 Wn.2d 621, 747 P.2d 1062 (1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1022, 100 L. Ed. 2d 227, 108 S. Ct. 1996 (1988) and Presbytery of Seattle v. King Cy., 114 Wn.2d 320, 787 P.2d 907, cert. denied, 498 U.S. 911, 112 L. Ed. 2d 238, 111 S. Ct. 284 (1990). It states that a police power regulation will be subject to a takings challenge if it " 'seeks less to prevent a harm than to impose on those regulated the requirement of providing an affirmative public benefit.'" Majority, at 594-95 (quoting Robinson v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 34, 49, 830 P.2d 318, cert. denied,_U.S._, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598, 113 S. Ct. 676 (1992)).
The differences between this formulation and the one originally set out in Orion-Presbytery are substantial. Under the Orion-Presbytery test, a police power regulation is only subject to takings analysis when it enhances the value of publicly held property. Under the majority's version, such a regulation is subject to takings analysis when it requires the provision of a public benefit, even if the only properties benefited are privately held. The number of police power
II
The majority's reformulation of the Orion-Presbytery test is troubling for a number of reasons. First, it requires courts to engage in a form of analysis which is logically incoherent and which has been explicitly, and recently, disavowed by the United States Supreme Court. Second, the majority's formulation has the capacity to resurrect all of the difficulties which initially spurred this court to develop the Orion-Presbytery test in the first place. And third, the cases on which the majority relies were, like this one, cases in which the appropriate formulation of the insulation doctrine was not directly relevant to the decision.
As noted above, the majority exposes a land use regulation to takings challenge when the regulation " 'seeks less to prevent a harm than to impose on those regulated the requirement of providing an affirmative public benefit.'" Majority, at 594-95 (quoting Robinson, 119 Wn.2d at 49). Effectively, this analysis requires courts to determine whether a given regulation is "harm-preventing", or "benefit-producing".
There is no principled manner in which to make this determination. Does a regulation which prohibits the building of a smoke-belching factory, for example, "prevent the harm of pollution" or "provide the benefit of clean air"? Does a regulation which requires coal companies to leave portions of their coal in the earth to support the surface "prevent the harm of subsidence" or "provide the benefit of stable land"? There simply are not principled answers to these questions. Indeed, since it is possible to argue that virtually any land use regulation provides some public benefit, the result of the majority's formulation may be to obliterate the insulation doctrine altogether.
One could say that imposing a servitude on Lucas's land is necessary in order to prevent his use of it from "harming" South Carolina's ecological resources; or, instead, in order to achieve the "benefits" of an ecological preserve.
The Orion-Presbytery analysis, by way of sharp contrast, does not rely upon the insupportable distinction between harm-preventing and benefit-producing regulations. Instead, it asks only whether the challenged regulation "enhance[s] a publicly owned right in land." Orion, 109 Wn.2d at 651. A court must inquire whether the regulation in question actually puts the privately held land to public use, rather than whether it produces benefit which might accrue to public lands as well as private. In other words, does the regulation effectively impose a servitude on the private land in favor of publicly held land?
The majority's formulation in dicta of the insulation doctrine is also troubling in that it resurrects some of the problems which Orion-Presbytery labored so mightily to avoid. As noted above, one of the principal motivating concerns of Orion-Presbytery was the possibility that uncertainty in takings law could stifle needed development in land use regulation through the specter of huge liability judgments against local government. See Orion, 109 Wn.2d at 649; Presbytery of Seattle v. King Cy., 114 Wn.2d 320, 332, 787 P.2d 907, cert.
In revising the Orion-Presbytery test, the majority chiefly relies upon this court's recent decisions in Sintra, Inc. v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 1, 829 P.2d 765, cert. denied sub nom. Robinson v. Seattle,_U.S._, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598, 113 S. Ct. 676 (1992) and Robinson v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 34, 830 P.2d 318, cert. denied,_U.S._, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598, 113 S. Ct. 676 (1992). While it is true that the court in both of those cases described the Orion-Presbytery test in the same manner as does the majority here, in neither case was the shift in language necessary to the decision reached. Furthermore, neither decision discussed the possibility that it was working a fundamental change in the Orion-Presbytery test and thus the court did not have an opportunity to discuss the merits or demerits of a revision in the takings law.
In Sintra and Robinson, the plaintiff landowners brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against the City of Seattle,
In reviewing this claim, the Sintra court transformed the Orion-Presbytery analysis. While it initially cited Presbytery for the proposition that regulations are only subject to takings challenges when they "actually enhance [] a publicly owned right in property", Sintra, 119 Wn.2d at 14 (quoting Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 329-30), it later replaced the Orion-Presbytery rule with the notion that regulations may be subject to takings challenges when they "enhance public interests.(Italics mine.) Sintra, 119 Wn.2d at 15. As described above, the difference between "enhancing a publicly owned right in property" and "enhancing a public interest" is tremendous, yet the Sintra court gave no indication that any change, much less a significant one, had occurred.
The Sintra court then expressed its opinion that, under its new test, the HPO was a benefit-producing measure rather than a harm-preventing measure. Sintra, 119 Wn.2d at 15-16.
Certainly, a regulatory scheme which is later determined to be a tax surpasses the proper scope of the City's police power. We, therefore, can determine, as a matter of law, that the HPO was not a proper exercise of the City's police power, and Presbytery's threshold requirements have been met here.
(Footnote omitted.) 119 Wn.2d at 16. Thus, since the court determined that the HPO's inherent invalidity met the requirements of the insulation doctrine, it was unnecessary
The court's decision in Robinson v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 34, 830 P.2d 318, cert. denied,_U.S._, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598, 113 S. Ct. 676 (1992) was similar. There, a class of landowners sought civil rights damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the City of Seattle for the City's enforcement of the same HPO at issue in Sintra, Inc. v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 1, 829 P.2d 765, cert. denied sub nom. Robinson v. Seattle,_ U.S._, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598, 113 S. Ct. 676 (1992). As in Sintra, the gravamen of the civil rights claims were takings without just compensation and violations of substantive due process. 119 Wn.2d at 48.
In Robinson, the court did not even state the Orion-Presbytery test in its original form, nor, like the Sintra court, did it indicate that a change had taken place. Instead, it simply asserted that regulations which "go[] beyond mere harm prevention to require a property owner to provide a public benefit". 119 Wn.2d at 50. The Robinson court, like the Sintra court, then expressed the opinion that the HPO surmounted the insulation doctrine because it "required property owners to provide a public benefit". 119 Wn.2d at 52.
Despite these initial observations, the Robinson court did not conclude that there had been a taking. Instead, the court held that the Robinsons had failed to make a sufficient facial takings challenge to the HPO, in that they had not shown that the regulation had "denied all economically viable use of any regulated property." (Italics omitted.) Robinson, 119 Wn.2d at 53-54. Since the Robinsons had only made a facial takings challenge to the HPO, and had failed to adequately support that challenge, their claim failed regardless of whether the Orion-Presbytery insulation doctrine or the new version was employed. As was the case with Sintra, the adoption of the
Our decisions in Sintra and Robinson, like our decision in this case, thus do not represent binding statements of the appropriate scope of the insulation doctrine.
Ill
The majority's unnecessary and nonbinding reformulation of the Orion-Presbytery insulation doctrine represents an alarming trend in our takings law. While the majority's statements are only dicta, this trend should not be allowed to continue and perhaps crystallize into settled law without comment. Since I believe the changes endorsed by the majority are unwise and unsupported by our case law, I concur only in the opinion of the court that the Act violates substantive due process and the judgment of the court that the Act has not worked a taking.
Reconsideration denied September 10, 1993.
See, e.g., Settle, Regulatory Taking Doctrine in Washington: Now You See It, Now You Don’t, 12 U. Puget Sound L. Rev. 339, 345-51 (1989); Stoebuck, San Diego Gas: Problems, Pitfalls and a Better Way, 25 J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 3, 11-14 (1983). See also Rose, Mahon Reconstructed: Why the Takings Issue is Still a Muddle, 57 S. Cal. L. Rev. 561, 587-97 (1983-1984) (describing fundamental tension between civic duty conceptions of property and those based on individual liberty).
The chief analytic hurdle faced by the Orion court in originally elucidating its resolution of the Mugler-Pennsylvania Coal tension was the fact that Justice Holmes had employed the term "taking" in describing the effect of a land use regulation that went "too far". 260 U.S. at 415. To overcome this hurdle, the Orion court recognized, as had previous courts, that the Pennsylvania Coal "too far" test was in fact a metaphor for due process analysis. Orion, 109 Wn.2d at 651 (citing Fred F. French Investing Co. v. New York, 39 N.Y.2d 587, 350 N.E.2d 381, 385 N.Y.S.2d 5 (1976)).
I recognize that the majority has reserved the question of the impact of Lucas on the insulation doctrine, at least partially in order to avoid "dismantling our takings framework, carefully crafted in Presbytery, Sintra, and Robinson". Majority, at 603 n.5. This aspect of Lucas, however, does not require us to dismantle our takings framework; instead, it indicates that certain mutations of that framework were unwise and therefore supports a return to the original Orion-Presbytery test.
Some commentators have misunderstood this aspect of the Orion-Presbytery framework. See, e.g., Comment, Taking Issue With. Takings: Has the Washington State Supreme Court Gone Too Far?, 66 Wash. L. Rev. 545, 556 (1991). Indeed, a footnote in Presbytery itself appears to conclude that the test requires a harm/ benefit analysis. Presbytery, 114 Wn.2d at 329 n.13. This is not a necessary result, however. Commentators have repeatedly recognized that a public use understanding of the takings clause does not necessarily devolve into the "morass" of harm/benefit analysis. See, e.g., Rubenfeld, Usings, 102 Yale L.J. 1077, 1111-30 (1993); Stoebuck, Police Power, Takings, and Due Process, 37 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1057, 1083-89 (1980). Properly put, the question is not whether a given regulation
The court remanded to determine whether any such reasonably profitable use existed. Orion, 109 Wn.2d at 662.
42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides what amounts to a tort remedy for violations of federal civil rights. In order to prevail on such a claim, a plaintiff must show: (1) a deprivation of a federal constitutional or statutory right; (2) that the deprivation was caused by someone acting "under color of state law". Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 68 L. Ed. 2d 420, 101 S. Ct. 1908 (1981); see also Sintra, Inc. v. Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 1, 12, 829 P.2d 765, cert. denied sub nom. Robinson v. Seattle,_U.S._, 121 L. Ed. 2d 598, 113 S. Ct. 676 (1992).
This aspect of the Sintra opinion provides an excellent example of the manipulability of the harm/benefit distinction. There, the court stated that the HPO was "benefit producing" because the "harm sought to be prevented — people standing on the street comer with nowhere to go — was exceeded." Sintra, 119 Wn.2d at 15-16. It is difficult to see why building new housing does not serve to prevent the harm of "people standing on the street comer".
The court's decision in Sintra is admittedly unclear on this point. The Sintra court apparently believed that the invalidity of the HPO as a tax was synonymous with its character as a benefit-producing police power regulation. Sintra, 119 Wn.2d at 15-16. Since benefit-producing police power regulations are not per se invalid, the most sensible reading of the Sintra decision is that it surmounted the Presbytery threshold simply by noting that the HPO was an invalid exercise of the police power.
It might be argued that the elaborate analyses of takings challenges which we have established in our cases actually require a linear analytic progression, rather than the more limited approach suggested by my discussion. Under that view, in order to reach the question of the facial challenge in Robinson, it was necessary for the court to first dispose of the insulation doctrine. It is, however, commonplace for courts to ignore extraneous issues in order to decide cases on dispositive issues, even when the extraneous issues may he analytically prior to the dispositive ones. In determining the holding of a particular case, therefore, we need look only to those dispositive issues.
Reference
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