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Parker v. Town of Milton12/18/1998
idually; (2) the interests it asserts are germane to the organization's purpose; and (3) the claim and relief requested do not require the participation of individual members in the action. See Hunt v. Wash. State Apple Adver. Comm., 432 U.S. 333, 343 (1977). An organization must show a concrete injury; an abstract interest in the outcome of an adjudication is insufficient. See Simon v. Eastern Ky. Welfare Rights Org., 426 U.S. 26, 40 (1976). Because an organization's members must have standing for the organization to have standing, we subject the union and individual plaintiffs to the same analysis.
Plaintiffs in this case argue that invoking the public trust doctrine should relieve them of the requirement to demonstrate individualized harm. They argue that, because members of the public are the beneficiaries of the public trust in navigable waters, mere status as a member of the public should be sufficient to confer standing. They analogize their claimed cause of action to a shareholder's derivative suit. Thus, plaintiffs argue, they need only show a harm to the trust as a whole, not an individualized harm to their own private property.
Contrary to plaintiffs' contention, the standing requirement of particularized injury is not suspended in cases where the plaintiff asserts the public trust doctrine. The Court has already decided this precise question. In Hazen v. Perkins, 92 Vt. 414, 105 A. 249 (1918), we found that the defendant, by virtue of the public trust doctrine, had no right to build structures that affected the lake level, and that the defendant's activities "affect the common rights of all persons and produce a common injury." Id. at 421, 105 A. at 251. We further found that the defendant's actions were a public nuisance against which the State would have a remedy. See id. Nonetheless, we concluded that the plaintiffs in that case, owners of land abutting the contested body of water, were required to show "that they have suffered some special and substantial injury, distinct and apart from the general injury to the public" to maintain a private suit against such a public nuisance. Id. The impact of the defendant's activities on the plaintiffs' aesthetic enjoyment and use of the water were not deemed to be injuries sufficient to establish standing. See id. at 422, 105 A. at 252. Thus, Hazen establishes that standing is not conferred on individuals merely by virtue of their status as beneficiaries of the interest protected by the public trust doctrine.
Nevertheless, plaintiffs contend that imposing the standing requirement in the public trust area is contrary to the logic of the public trust doctrine and would defeat its purposes. Even if that were true, standing is a jurisdictional requirement that may not be abrogated in favor of furthering the purposes of the public trust doctrine. Vermont courts addressing requests for declaratory judgment are only empowered to decide justiciable controversies. By requiring plaintiffs to show actual injury to meet the standing requirement, we ensure that the cases before the courts are fully and vigorously litigated in pursuit of genuine interests. Moreover, we do not agree that the standing requirement undermines the public trust doctrine. The purpose of the doctrine is to preserve the public's interest in Vermont's navigable waterways. See 29 V.S.A. ยง 801. It does not advance the public trust doctrine to permit litigants without a personal stake in the proceedings to claim harm to some generalized interest that they alone articulate, purportedly on behalf of the public interest. Here, plaintiffs' claim of injury is to the economic and employment interests of the public in general. While plaintiffs may have some legitimate concerns abo
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