La. Seafood Management Council v. La. Wildlife and Fisheries Com'n

715 So. 2d 387, 1998 WL 251240
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 19, 1998
Docket97-CA-1367
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 715 So. 2d 387 (La. Seafood Management Council v. La. Wildlife and Fisheries Com'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
La. Seafood Management Council v. La. Wildlife and Fisheries Com'n, 715 So. 2d 387, 1998 WL 251240 (La. 1998).

Opinion

715 So.2d 387 (1998)

LOUISIANA SEAFOOD MANAGEMENT COUNCIL, et al.
v.
LOUISIANA WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES COMMISSION, et al.

No. 97-CA-1367.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 19, 1998.

*388 Edmond Wade Shows, Richard Phillip Ieyoub, Attorney General, Frederick Whitrock, T. Michael Landrum, Ronnie J. Berthelot, Donald Edwin Puckett, Thomas E. Balhoff, Judith R.E. Atkinson, Baton Rouge, for Applicant.

Robert Alan Barnett, New Orleans, Paul R. Baier, Baton Rouge, for Respondent.

LEMMON, Justice.[*]

This is a direct appeal from a judgment of the trial court that declared unconstitutional several portions of Act No. 1316 of 1995, entitled the Louisiana Marine Resources Conservation Act and colloquially called the "gill net ban" law.[1]

Facts

Act 1316 of 1995 significantly restricted the use of gill nets by commercial fishermen in Louisiana waters. The principal limitations *389 were on the manner in which gill nets can be used. The Act restricts a commercial fisherman to the use of one "strike net"[2] and, after a two-year phase-in period, to the taking of mullets and pompano. And even for those species, the periods of time during which fish can be taken were significantly limited.

Attempting to block the implementation of Act 1316, plaintiffs[3] filed the instant class action against the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (DWF).[4] Plaintiffs asserted that Act 1316 is unconstitutional in its entirety based on numerous violations of state and federal constitutional provisions.

After a hearing, the trial court denied plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction, finding generally that the provisions of Act 1316 were constitutional. However, the court reserved judgment on the alleged commerce clause and takings clause violations until the trial of the permanent injunction.[5]

The trial court thereafter conducted a merits hearing on the permanent injunction. In reasons for judgment, the court concluded that the statutory provisions at issue violated both the takings clause and the commerce clause.[6] As to the takings clause, the court ruled that former La.Rev.Stat. 56:640.3 conferred on plaintiffs an incorporeal property right to fish commercially[7] and that the 1995 amendment to that statute constituted an "outright constructive repeal" of the right to fish commercially.[8] Having found plaintiffs *390 possessed an incorporeal right that was extinguished by Act 1316, the trial court turned to the question of whether that extinguishment was a constitutional taking.

The trial court applied the three-pronged test enunciated in State Through Dep't of Transp. and Dev. v. Chambers Inv. Co., 595 So.2d 598 (La.1992) for determining whether compensation is due for the taking of an incorporeal right.[9] Addressing whether Act 1316 affected the plaintiffs' right to fish commercially, the court observed:

In this case, the petitioners who were licensed to fish commercially [and all others who were permitted to fish commercially] prior to the enactment of Act. No. 1316, § 2 which amended this statute, had the vested right, to fish commercially. Having been invested with that right, the commercial fishermen then proceeded to purchase the necessary legal gear and boat(s) to exercise that right. Several of these commercial fishermen invested thousands of dollars with the understanding, as expressed in the law, that their gear would not be later declared illegal without biological data showing that a previously legal method of harvesting fish was damaging a particular species of fish.
Act 1316 eliminated the use of gill nets in state waters. This previously legal method of harvesting fish was declared illegal without any supporting biological data showing that the gill nets were damaging a particular species of fish. Consequently, the petitioners who are commercial fishermen and who had invested in gill nets had their right to fish commercially affected. (emphasis added).

Turning to the second inquiry of whether the property right has been taken or damaged in a constitutional sense, the trial court commented that the result of Act 1316's rendering illegal the use of gill nets was that "several of the commercial fishermen lost most, if not all, of their business." Continuing, the court noted that "[t]o offset their losses, the State, through Act 1316, offered to buy back some of their gear and/or extend educational opportunities to these commercial fishermen with the precondition that they would surrender their right to fish commercially." Given this, the court concluded that the property right to fish commercially had been taken or damaged in a constitutional sense.

On the final inquiry of whether the taking was for a public purpose under La. Const. art. I, § 4, the trial court, citing the express legislative language that the purpose of Act 1316 was "to promote the enhancement of Louisiana's marine resources by the removal of indiscriminate entanglement nets from coastal waters," concluded that this clearly was a public purpose.

Since the three-prong Chambers test was satisfied, the trial court then examined Section 13.1 of Act 1316, which provides for buy-back of gill nets and for training of certain qualified applicants, to determine whether these programs constituted just compensation *391 to the commercial fishermen. Labeling Section 13.1's provisions "woefully inadequate," the court reasoned:

The "buy back" and training provisions of the Act are woefully inadequate and fail to justly compensate the commercial fishermen. For instance, in arbitrarily restricting the eligibility of those applicants for economic assistance to those who had purchased a gill net license in at least two of the years between 1993 and 1995, Act 1316 provides no compensation to all those who had been conferred the incorporeal right to fish commercially and who had been permitted to fish commercially since 1986, but who did not purchase a gill net license in two of the years between 1993 and 1995. Additionally, the "buy back" and training provisions fail to justly compensate those who qualified for economic assistance under the Act because the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has failed to allocate any money for the purchase of the formerly legal gear.

The trial court thus concluded that Section 13.1 violated La. Const. art. I, § 4's prohibition against taking property without just compensation. Further concluding that Section 13.1 is severable from the remainder of Act 1316, the court permanently enjoined the Department from enforcing Section 13.1 and ordered the defendant State of Louisiana to "justly compensate the commercial fishermen who were either licensed or permitted to fish commercially when Act 1316 went into effect... for all previously legal gear and equipment they had purchased in the exercise of their previously legislatively conferred incorporeal right to fish commercially."

Plaintiffs thereafter applied for a new trial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
715 So. 2d 387, 1998 WL 251240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/la-seafood-management-council-v-la-wildlife-and-fisheries-comn-la-1998.