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 the

Superior 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 agreement1 was void ab initio; and (4) failed to

address 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 Maine

Power 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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