Building Inspector & Zoning Officer v. Wampanoag Aquinnah Shellfish Hatchery Corp.

443 Mass. 1
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedDecember 9, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 443 Mass. 1 (Building Inspector & Zoning Officer v. Wampanoag Aquinnah Shellfish Hatchery Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Building Inspector & Zoning Officer v. Wampanoag Aquinnah Shellfish Hatchery Corp., 443 Mass. 1 (Mass. 2004).

Opinions

Greaney, J.

We granted an application for direct appellate review to determine whether the defendants, Wampanoag Aquinnah Shellfish Hatchery Corporation (Hatchery) and Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Head, Inc. (Tribe), may properly invoke a claim of sovereign immunity to evade a zoning enforcement action and, ultimately, compliance with local permitting requirements. The case concerns the construction of a shed and a pier platform on real property known as the Cook Lands, a coastal area bordered by Menemsha Pond, located in the town of Aquinnah (formerly Gay Head),4 Martha’s Vineyard. After hearing cross motions for summary judgment, a Superior Court judge dismissed the complaint and entered judgment in favor of the defendants, declaring that the Tribe retains sovereign immunity from civil suit to enforce the local permitting requirements. We conclude that with respect to its land use on the Cook Lands, the only land in dispute in this case, the Tribe [3]*3waived its sovereign immunity, thus' subjecting the Tribe and the Hatchery to the zoning enforcement action. The order and judgment shall be vacated. The case is remanded for (1) entry of a judgment declaring that the Tribe, with respect to its land use activities on the Cook Lands, waived sovereign immunity and that the defendants are not immune from the zoning enforcement action; and (2) further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

The following facts are undisputed. The Tribe was incorporated as a Massachusetts nonprofit corporation in 1972. In 1974, the Tribe commenced an action in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts against the town of Gay Head, claiming that certain transfers of land in the town to which the Tribe claimed title had violated the Indian Nonintercourse Act, 25 U.S.C. § 177.5 In 1981, the Tribe petitioned for (but did not obtain until about six years later) Federal recognition of its existence as a Native American Tribe. In 1983, the Tribe, the town, the State, and the intervener Aquinnah/Gay Head Community Association, Inc. (formerly Taxpayers’ Association of Gay Head, Inc.) (association),6 entered into a “Joint Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Settlement of the Gay Head, Massachusetts Indian Land Claims” (settlement agreement). The settlement agreement and, in particular, the Tribe’s agreement to extinguishment of all “aboriginal” claims to the property subject thereto7 was conditioned on the enactment of implementing legislation and on the appropriation of funding to finance the purchase of several hundreds acres of land for the Tribe. In the settlement agreement, the Tribe agreed that it would create another State-chartered corporation, called the Tribal Land Corporation, for the purpose of permanently holding the property, including the Cook Lands, subject to the [4]*4agreement. In addition, the settlement agreement contains the following:

“3. . . . The Tribal Land Corporation shall hold the Settlement Lands, and any other land it may acquire, in the same manner, and subject to the same laws, as any other Massachusetts corporation, except to the extent specifically modified by this agreement and the accompanying proposed legislation. Under no circumstances, including any future recognition of the existence of an Indian tribe in the Town of Gay Head, shall the civil or criminal jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or any of its political subdivisions, over the settlement lands, or any land owned by the Tribal Land Corporation in the Town of Gay Head, or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or any other Indian land in Gay Head, or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, be impaired or otherwise altered, except to the extent modified in this agreement and in the accompanying proposed legislation. . . .
“5. The Town of Gay Head shall convey the so-called Cook Lands [The Cook Lands constitute ‘other land’ the Tribal Land Corporation ‘may acquire,’ as provided in Section 3] to the Tribal Land Corporation. Such property . . . shall remain subject to taxation and foreclosure in the same manner as any other privately owned property in Gay Head. Any structure placed on this property shall be subject to all Federal, State and local laws, including Town zoning laws, State and Federal conservation laws, and the regulations of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission .... Changes in Town zoning laws made subsequent to the date of this [agreement] may be made applicable to such Cook Lands only in the manner provided for changes to the Land Use Plan as described in Paragraph 16 of this [agreement]. If the said property is used for any purpose not permitted by the Land Use Plan, or is sold, leased or otherwise alienated by the Tribal Land Corporation to any entity other than one which is Indian controlled, all right, title and interest in the property shall revert to the Town of Gay Head, provided however, that nothing herein shall prevent the granting of a valid mortgage on the said property. . . .
[5]*5“16. . . . [T]he Land Use Plan [is] attached hereto and made a part hereof. The Land Use Plan shall be enacted as part of the zoning law of the Town of Gay Head. Future amendments of the Land Use Plan as applicable to the Settlement Lands and embodied in the Town Zoning Law will require approval by the Tribal Land Corporation, by the Town of Gay Head (by whatever majority is usually required for such amendments) at two town meetings not less than one month apart, at least one of which shall be held during the month of July or August, and by such officials, if any, of the Commonwealth whose approval is required for amendments to zoning laws.” (Emphases added.)

The land use plan contains a section that pertains specifically to the Cook Lands and provides that the Cook Lands “will be subject to normal health and building regulations of Gay Head and the Commonwealth, as they are in force at the time in question, and to [S]tote and [F]ederal conservation laws and the regulations of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. Town zoning laws applicable to these lands may be changed only in the manner provided in the Settlement Agreement.”

When the parties executed the settlement agreement, the 1983 zoning bylaw was in effect. Section VII(A) of the bylaw authorizes the building inspector to enforce the bylaws and contains a building permit requirement:

“This By-Law shall be enforced by the Building Inspector ... . No building shall be built or altered and no use of land or building shall be begun or changed without a permit having been issued by the Building Inspector. . . . Permits not used within a year’s time shall become void. Each application for a permit shall be accompanied by such plans, surveys, and other data as may be necessary in the opinion of the Building Inspector to insure full compliance with this By-Law.”

Section 11(H)(1) of the bylaw contains a special permit requirement and provides:

“There shall be no construction of buildings or structures within 200 feet of wetlands, waterbodies, [6]

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443 Mass. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/building-inspector-zoning-officer-v-wampanoag-aquinnah-shellfish-mass-2004.