Woodbury Heights Estates Water Co. v. Village of Woodbury

111 A.D.3d 699, 975 N.Y.S.2d 101

This text of 111 A.D.3d 699 (Woodbury Heights Estates Water Co. v. Village of Woodbury) 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
Woodbury Heights Estates Water Co. v. Village of Woodbury, 111 A.D.3d 699, 975 N.Y.S.2d 101 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

In an action, inter alia, for a judgment declaring that Local Law No. 6 (2008) of the Village of Woodbury is preempted by state law and, therefore, invalid, the Village of Woodbury appeals from an order and judgment (one paper) of the Supreme Court, Orange County (Ecker, J.), dated March 19, 2012, which granted the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on the complaint and declared that the law is preempted by state law and, therefore, invalid.

Ordered that the order and judgment is affirmed, with costs.

In 2008, the Village of Woodbury passed Local Law No. 6 (2008) (hereinafter the Local Law), which states: “The removal of groundwater, either directly or after storage, for use outside of the incorporated Village of Woodbury is expressly prohibited, except by intermunicipal agreement with the Village Board of Trustees.” In passing the Local Law, the Village board made a legislative finding that, among other things, the law was necessary to “preserve and protect the limited natural water resource [700]*700essential to and shared by Village residents, both as to quality and quantity.” A violation of the Local Law is a misdemeanor.

The plaintiff, Woodbury Heights Estates Water Co., Inc., is a private water-works corporation formed pursuant to article 4 of the Transportation Corporations Law to provide water within the Village. The plaintiff commenced this action, inter alia, for a judgment declaring that the Local Law is preempted by state law and, therefore, invalid. According to the complaint, the plaintiff currently operates wells and storage tanks which it utilizes to deliver water to 67 single-family homes in the Wood-bury Heights Estates subdivision, located within the Village. The plaintiff contended that the Local Law would interfere with its ability to transfer water to the neighboring Town of Monroe pursuant to a “certificate of extension” that it obtained and filed pursuant to Transportation Corporations Law § 46. The Supreme Court granted the plaintiffs motion for summary judgment on the complaint and declared that the Local Law was preempted by state law and, therefore, invalid.

“As a matter of constitutional and statutory delegation, local governments are authorized to legislate in enumerated areas of local concern, subject to the Legislature’s overriding interest in matters of statewide concern” (Matter of Cohen v Board of Appeals of Vil. of Saddle Rock, 100 NY2d 395, 399 [2003], citing NY Const art IX). “A village cannot supersede a state law where a local law is otherwise preempted by State law” (Matter of Cohen v Board of Appeals of Vil. of Saddle Rock, 100 NY2d at 400 [internal quotation marks omitted]). “The preemption doctrine represents a fundamental limitation on home rule powers” (Albany Area Bldrs. Assn. v Town of Guilderland, 74 NY2d 372, 377 [1989]). “Local lawmaking power under the supersession authority is of course in all instances subject to the State’s transcendent interest where the Legislature has manifested such interest by expressly prohibiting a local law, or where a local law is otherwise preempted by State law” (Kamhi v Town of Yorktown, 74 NY2d 423, 430 [1989] [citations omitted]). “Preemption applies both in cases of express conflict between local and State law and in cases where the State has evidenced its intent to occupy the field” (Albany Area Bldrs. Assn. v Town of Guilderland, 74 NY2d at 377). Field preemption occurs where (1) a “state statute explicitly avers that it preempts all local laws on the same subject matter,” (2) “a declaration of state policy evinces the intent of the Legislature to preempt local laws on the same subject matter,” and (3) “the Legislature’s enactment of a comprehensive and detailed regulatory scheme in an area in controversy is deemed to demonstrate an intent to [701]*701preempt local laws” (Matter of Chwick v Mulvey, 81 AD3d 161, 169-170 [2010]). Here, provisions of the Transportation Corporations Law and the Environmental Conservation Law, taken together, clearly establish that the State Legislature intended to preempt local governments in regulating both the withdrawal and transfer of water resources.

A water-works corporation, which may be formed pursuant to the Transportation Corporations Law, “is a corporation organized to supply water by mains or pipes to any of the cities, towns or villages in this state, and the inhabitants thereof” (Transportation Corporations Law § 40). A water-works corporation is formed by delivering a certificate of incorporation to the department of state listing, inter alia, “the cities, towns and villages to be supplied with water, and that the consent of the authorities of such cities, towns and villages required by this chapter has been obtained, and that such consent has been annexed thereto” (Transportation Corporations Law § 3 [b] [3]). A water-works corporation has the power “[t]o lay and maintain its pipes and hydrants for delivering and distributing water in any street, highway or public place of any city, town or village in which it has obtained the consent required by [Transportation Corporations Law § 41]” (Transportation Corporations Law § 43 [1]). Additionally, evidencing the broad powers of water-works corporations, for purposes of accessing a source of water or transferring water to nonadjoining municipalities where it has permission to distribute water, a waterworks corporation has the power “[t]o lay its water pipes in any streets or avenues or public places of an adjoining city, town or village” (Transportation Corporations Law § 43 [2]), even over the objection of a municipality that has not authorized the water-works corporation to sell water within its territory (see Rochester & Lake Ontario Water Co. v City of Rochester, 176 NY 36 [1903]; Village of Pelham Manor v New Rochelle Water Co., 143 NY 532 [1894]). By their nature, water-works corporations are public utilities, and once formed, are statutorily obligated to supply “pure and wholesome water” at “reasonable rates” (Transportation Corporations Law § 42), and are regulated by the Public Service Commission (see Public Service Law art 4-B; see also 108 NY Jur 2d, Water § 506).

As relevant to this case, the Transportation Corporations Law permits water-works corporations to extend their service area to neighboring municipalities by entering “into a contract with the authorities of any city, town or village not mentioned in its certificate of incorporation, but situated in the same county as the city, towns or villages mentioned therein or in an [702]*702adjoining county” (Transportation Corporations Law § 46). Once the consent of the new municipality is obtained, the waterworks corporation may file a “certificate of extension” permitting it to “thereupon supply any such city, town or village with water in the same manner and with the same rights and subject to the same requirements as if it had been named in the original certificate of incorporation” (Transportation Corporations Law § 46). Notably, the statutory procedure for obtaining a certificate of extension does not require the water-works corporation to obtain the consent or permission of the municipality where it was originally incorporated, an omission which we must conclude the Legislature intended (see

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Bluebook (online)
111 A.D.3d 699, 975 N.Y.S.2d 101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodbury-heights-estates-water-co-v-village-of-woodbury-nyappdiv-2013.