West Indian Co. v. Government of the Virgin Islands

658 F. Supp. 619, 23 V.I. 176, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3080
CourtDistrict Court, Virgin Islands
DecidedApril 13, 1987
DocketCivil No. 1986/293
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 658 F. Supp. 619 (West Indian Co. v. Government of the Virgin Islands) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, Virgin Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
West Indian Co. v. Government of the Virgin Islands, 658 F. Supp. 619, 23 V.I. 176, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3080 (vid 1987).

Opinion

O’BRIEN, Judge

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The plaintiff and Helen W. Gjessing, et al., as citizen intervenors, have each filed a motion for summary judgment in this matter. The Legislature of the Virgin Islands, as intervenor, opposes the plaintiff’s motion. We grant summary judgment herein in favor of [178]*178the plaintiff, and deny the relief sought by the citizen intervenors. By so doing, we convert a previously entered preliminary injunction into a permanent injunction, barring interference with the plaintiff’s rights under a Memorandum of Understanding entered into in 1973, and certain Addenda thereto.

I. FACTS

This case has previously been the subject of a lengthy published opinion. West Indian Co. v. Government of the Virgin Islands, 643 F. Supp. 869 (D.V.1.1986), aff’d Appeal Nos. 86-3577, 86-3578, Slip. Op. February 26, 1987 (3d Circuit).

The material facts were spelled out in detail in that opinion. Since its issuance, additional documents have been filed in conjunction with the motions for summary judgment, but they do not alter the essential fact pattern or the legal interpretation of those facts.

For the purpose of deciding the motions before us, we adopt in full the findings of fact as recited in West Indian Co., supra at 870-73. Since the record before us is almost exclusively documentary, the material facts are not in dispute. The legal interpretation of those facts, however, is sharply contested.

The prior opinion was issued upon a motion for a preliminary injunction, whereby the plaintiff sought to enjoin the Government of the Virgin Islands and other parties from interference with its rights to dredge and fill land in St. Thomas harbour under a certain Memorandum of Understanding dated October 3, 1973. The Memorandum had previously been approved as to content by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands by Act No. 3326 in 1972. The plaintiff, the United States of America, and the Government of the Virgin Islands were parties to that agreement, as were certain other persons. Subsequent to its execution, two Addenda were also entered into, one of which was substantive in nature. It was also approved by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands by Act No. 4700 in 1982.

The Memorandum of Understanding was intended to resolve a dispute among the parties as to the rights of the plaintiff preserved in the 1917 treaty between Denmark and the United States by which the Virgin Islands became a possession of the United States. In effect, it settled a lawsuit over the nature and extent of those rights, brought by the United States under Civil No. 1968/337 (St. Thomas & St. John Division).

[179]*179The subsequent Addenda further clarified the plaintiffs rights and left the plaintiff free to commence the dredging and filling of submerged lands in St. Thomas harbour. This it proceeded to do in 1986. The resulting public furor caused the duly elected members of the Legislature to enact, over the governor’s veto, Act No. 5188, repealing Act Nos. 3326 and 4700, which, in effect, repudiated the Memorandum of Understanding and its Addenda. This, of course, wiped out all of plaintiff’s agreed-upon dredging rights, and led to the lawsuit herein.

As noted earlier, a full exposition of the facts is contained in West Indian Co., supra at 870-73.

The grant of a preliminary injunction to the plaintiff was appealed to the Third Circuit on a variety of grounds, only some of which had been raised in this Court earlier.

II. DISCUSSION

A. The Motions for Summary Judgment

It is well settled that cross-motions for summary judgment do not warrant the court in granting summary judgment unless one of the moving parties is entitled to judgment as a matter of law upon facts that are not genuinely disputed. Manetas v. International Petroleum Carriers, Inc., 541 F.2d 408, 413 (3d Cir. 1976); Rains v. Cascade Industries, Inc., 402 F.2d 241, 245 (3d Cir. 1968); F.A.R. Liquidating Corp. v. Brownell, 209 F.2d 375, 380 (3d Cir. 1954).

The party who moves for summary judgment has the burden of demonstrating that there is no genuine issue of fact. Kress, Dunlap & Lane, Ltd. v. Downing, 286 F.2d 212, 215 (3d Cir. 1960). As we have previously stated, the facts in this case are largely drawn from submitted documents. They are not genuinely disputed.

B. Assertions of the Parties

In their response to the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, and in their own cross-motion for summary judgment, the citizen intervenors raise essentially the same legal arguments which were raised earlier to no avail on the same set of material facts. Likewise, the Legislature of the Virgin Islands makes the same argument it made before us originally, and thereafter on appeal to the Third Circuit.

These primary arguments, made in this Court earlier, on appeal, and again with reference to summary judgment, are:

[180]*180(1) The public trust doctrine prevented the government from being a party to the 1973 Memorandum of Understanding and Addenda thereto. Therefore, the government acted illegally and the repeal of those actions by a subsequent legislature was valid.

(2) The repeal of the previous agreements entered into by the government was a valid exercise of the police power, even in the face of the Contract Clause contained in the U.S. Constitution Art. I, Section 10 and the Revised Organic Act of 1954, Section 3.

The citizen intervenors and the Legislature repeat these arguments again in their filings concerning the motions for summary -judgment. These same arguments were rejected by us in West Indian Co. v. Government of the Virgin Islands, supra, 643 F. Supp. at 873-83. They were also rejected without discussion by the Third Circuit. (Appeal Nos. 86-3577, 86-3578, Slip. Op. February 26, 1987).

No additional material facts have been presented since the time of our earlier opinion, and no new or more persuasive legal arguments have been offered by any of the intervenors which would cause us to alter our previous legal rulings with reference to the public trust doctrine and the police power assertions. We stand on our previous rulings concerning these contentions, and once again, reject them.

The intervenors do raise before us a new claim that the Rule Against Perpetuities was violated by the Memorandum of Understanding and its Addenda. This argument was briefed and presented to the Third Circuit in the appeal of our entry of a preliminary injunction. The Third Circuit, at page 4 of its slip opinion, noted that it had given “full consideration of the matters set forth in the briefs and at oral argument”. Thus, we assume that the contentions concerning the Rule Against Perpetuities were considered and rejected by the Third Circuit. Since this is our first review of this argument, we discuss it briefly.

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Related

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
844 F.2d 1007 (Third Circuit, 1988)
West Indian Co. v. Government of the Virgin Islands
844 F.2d 1007 (Third Circuit, 1988)

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658 F. Supp. 619, 23 V.I. 176, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3080, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-indian-co-v-government-of-the-virgin-islands-vid-1987.