Sierra Club v. Village of Painted Post

134 A.D.3d 1475, 23 N.Y.S.3d 506

This text of 134 A.D.3d 1475 (Sierra Club v. Village of Painted Post) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sierra Club v. Village of Painted Post, 134 A.D.3d 1475, 23 N.Y.S.3d 506 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Appeal from a judgment (denominated order) of the Supreme Court, Steuben County (Kenneth R. Fisher, J.), entered April 8, 2013 in a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78. The judgment, insofar as appealed from, denied in part the motion of respondents Village of Painted Post, Painted Post Development, LLC, and SWEPI, LP to dismiss the petition and granted petitioners summary judgment on the first cause of action. The judgment was reversed insofar as appealed from by memorandum and order of this Court entered March 28, 2014 (115 AD3d 1310 [2014]), and petitioners on October 23, 2014 were granted leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals from the order of this Court (24 NY3d 908 [2014]), and the Court of Appeals on November 19, 2015 reversed the order and remitted the case to this Court for consideration of issues raised but not determined on the appeal to this Court (26 NY3d 301 [2015]).

Now, upon remittitur from the Court of Appeals,

It is hereby ordered that, upon remittitur from the Court of Appeals, the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: Petitioners commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding seeking, inter alia, to annul certain determinations of respondent Village of Painted Post (Village), which permitted respondent Painted Post Development, LLC (PPD) to lease land to respondent Wellsboro and Corning Railroad, LLC (WCOR) for the construction and operation of a transloading facility (Lease Agreement) and permitted the Village to sell approximately one million gallons per day (gpd) of water from its water supply to respondent SWEPI, LP (SWEPI) (Water Agreement). The water was to be loaded onto trains at the transloading facility and transported to Pennsylvania via an existing rail line that traversed the entire Village.

Respondents filed motions in which they sought, inter alia, dismissal of the petition pursuant to CPLR 3211 and 3212. Petitioners opposed those motions but did not file a cross mo[1476]*1476tion. Supreme Court granted respondents’ motions in part, but denied respondents’ motions insofar as they sought dismissal of the first cause of action, which alleged that the Village had failed to comply with the strict procedural requirements of New York State Environmental Quality Review Act ([SEQRA] ECL 8-0101 et seq.-, 6 NYCRR 617.1 et seq.). Instead, the court searched the record, awarded petitioners summary judgment on that cause of action and issued an injunction enjoining any further water withdrawals from the Village’s water supply pursuant to the Water Agreement. Respondents-appellants (hereafter, respondents) appealed.

When this matter was first before this Court, we determined that none of the petitioners had established standing to commence the proceeding, i.e., an “ ‘injury that [was] in some way different from that of the public at large’ ” (Matter of Sierra Club v Village of Painted Post, 115 AD3d 1310, 1312 [2014], quoting Society of Plastics Indus. v County of Suffolk, 77 NY2d 761, 774 [1991]). We thus reversed the judgment insofar as it awarded summary judgment to petitioners on the first cause of action (id. at 1310). The Court of Appeals, finding that this appeal provided it with “the opportunity to elucidate and further address the ‘special injury’ requirement of standing,” reversed the order of this Court and remitted the matter for consideration of issues raised but not determined on the appeal to this Court (Matter of Sierra Club v Village of Painted Post, 26 NY3d 301, 306 [2015], quoting Society of Plastics Indus., 77 NY2d at 778). We now address those issues.

We reject respondents’ contention that the first cause of action should have been dismissed on the grounds of laches or mootness. “Dismissal based upon laches is appropriate where the following circumstances are present: (1) conduct by an offending party giving rise to the situation complained of, (2) delay by the complainant in asserting his or her claim for relief despite the opportunity to do so, (3) lack of knowledge or notice on the part of the offending party that the complainant would assert his or her claim for relief, and (4) injury or prejudice to the offending party in the event that relief is accorded the complainant” (Matter of Miner v Town of Duanesburg Planning Bd., 98 AD3d 812, 813-814 [2012], lv denied 20 NY3d 853 [2012] [internal quotation marks omitted]). Although there may be triable issues of fact on the element of delay, we conclude that there is no evidence in the record that respondents would suffer any injury or prejudice in the event relief is accorded to petitioners.

On February 23, 2012, the Village Board (Board) issued [1477]*1477resolutions authorizing the Lease Agreement and Water Agreement. Among other things, the Lease Agreement authorized WCOR, as the Lessor, to construct the transloading facility, at no expense to the Lessee, i.e., PPD. By the time petitioners commenced this proceeding on June 25, 2012, construction on the transloading facility was substantially completed. Petitioners, however, are not challenging the construction of the transloading facility but, rather, they are challenging the underlying project for which the facility was constructed (cf. id. at 814; Matter of Paden v Planning Bd. of Town of Mamakating, 270 AD2d 626, 626 [2000]; Matter of Caprari v Town of Colesville, 199 AD2d 705, 706 [1993]). Thus, the relief requested by petitioners has not been rendered moot, i.e., “impossible to grant or wholly untenable” (Matter of E.W. Tompkins Co., Inc. v Board of Trustees of Clifton Park-Halfmoon Pub. Lib., 27 AD3d 1046, 1047-1048 [2006], lv denied 7 NY3d 704 [2006]). Moreover, respondents failed to raise a triable issue of fact concerning whether they would suffer any injury or prejudice inasmuch as the nonappealing respondent, WCOR, was responsible for the construction of the transloading facility.

On the merits, we agree with petitioners that the Village’s determination that the Water Agreement was a Type II action and not subject to SEQRA review was arbitrary and capricious. First, we reject respondents’ contention that the withdrawal and sale of surplus water from a municipal water supply is not an “action” for SEQRA purposes (see 6 NYCRR 617.2 [b] [1]). Second, we conclude that the Water Agreement constitutes either a Type I or an Unlisted action.

iype I actions include any “project or action that would use ground or surface water in excess of [two million gpd]” (6 NYCRR 617.4 [b] [6] [ii]). Type II actions, i.e., those that are not subject to SEQRA review (see 6 NYCRR 617.5 [a]), include the “purchase or sale of furnishings, equipment or supplies, including surplus government property, other than the following: land, radioactive material, pesticides, herbicides, or other hazardous materials” (6 NYCRR 617.5 [c] [25]). Unlisted actions are defined as all actions not previously identified as either a iype I or iype II action (see 6 NYCRR 617.2 [ak]).

It is undisputed that the purchase or sale of one million gpd of water is not specifically defined as a iype I or iype II action (see 6 NYCRR 617.4, 617.5). Respondents thus contend that it is a iype II action because it involves the purchase and sale of surplus government “property” (6 NYCRR 617.5 [c] [25]). We reject that contention inasmuch as water constitutes a natural resource, not property (see ECL 8-0105 [6]; see also ECL 15-0505 [3]; cf. 6 NYCRR 617.5 [b] [25]).

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822 N.E.2d 339 (New York Court of Appeals, 2004)
The Matter of Sierra Club v. Village of Painted Post
43 N.E.3d 745 (New York Court of Appeals, 2015)
Society of Plastics Industry, Inc. v. County of Suffolk
573 N.E.2d 1034 (New York Court of Appeals, 1991)
E.W. Tompkins Co. v. Board of Trustees of Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library
27 A.D.3d 1046 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2006)
Caprari v. Town of Colesville
199 A.D.2d 705 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1993)
Sierra Club v. Village of Painted Post
115 A.D.3d 1310 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2014)
Paden v. Planning Board of Mamakating
270 A.D.2d 626 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2000)
Forman v. Trustees of State University
303 A.D.2d 1019 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2003)

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Bluebook (online)
134 A.D.3d 1475, 23 N.Y.S.3d 506, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sierra-club-v-village-of-painted-post-nyappdiv-2015.