MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT Reporter of Decisions
Decision No. Mem 05-142
Docket No. Ken-05-212
SAVE OUR SEBASTICOOK, INC., et al.
v.
DEPARTMENT OF MARINE RESOURCES et al.
*Submitted on Briefs September 16, 2005
Decided October 12, 2005
Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and CLIFFORD, ALEXANDER, CALKINS, and
LEVY, JJ.
MEMORANDUM OF DECISION
Save Our Sebasticook, Inc., and its members individually (collectively
SOS), appeal from the entry of judgment by the Superior Court (Kennebec County,
Studstrup, J.
) dismissing SOS’s complaint as untimely. SOS contends that theSuperior Court erred when it (1) held that SOS’s declaratory judgment complaint
did not state claims upon which relief could be granted and that the action should
have been brought as an M.R. Civ. P. 80C complaint; (2) found that SOS’s claim
was barred by the statute of limitations; (3) refused to consider SOS’s claim that
*
Where public officials are individually named in complaints challenging only their official actions,we substitute the name of the agency whose action is challenged in the caption of the opinion.
2
execution of the 1998 KHDG agreement
1 was void ab initio; and (4) failed toaddress SOS’s argument that the State’s execution of the 1998 KHDG agreement
violated constitutional law through an impermissible delegation of the
police
power. Assuming, without deciding, that the KHDG agreement,entered as part of a federal dam licensing process, could have been
challenged in 1998 as a final agency action pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 80C,
the Superior Court’s well reasoned opinion correctly determined that
the SOS action was untimely. 5 M.R.S.A.
§ 11002(3) (2002).
The entry is:
Judgment affirmed.
Attorneys for plaintiff:
Anthony W. Buxton, Esq.
Todd J. Griset, Esq.
Linda S. Lockhart, Esq.
Preti Flaherty Beliveau Pachios & Haley, LLC
P.O. Box 1058
Augusta, ME 04332-1058
1
The 1998 KHDG agreement was a comprehensive settlement agreement between Central MainePower Company, the Kennebec Hydro Developers Group, and many federal, state, and local agencies
and
to governand fund fisheries restoration and to assist in the removal of the Edwards Dam.
It was entered as part of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dam relicensing process.
3
Attorneys for defendants:
G. Steven Rowe, Attorney General
Dennis J. Harnish, Asst. Atty. Gen.
6 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0006
Catherine R. Connors, Esq.
Matthew D. Manahan, Esq.
Pierce Atwood
One Monument Square
Portland, ME 04101
(for FPL Energy Maine Hydro LLC)
William S. Harwood, Esq.
Nora R. Healy, Esq.
Verrill Dana LLP
One Portland Square
Portland, ME 04112-0586
(for American Rivers, Atlantic Salmon Federation, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Trout
Unlimited and Kennebec Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited)
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