Chernaik v. Brown

In a lawsuit brought in 2011 by minor children (now adults), the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that the Oregon common-law public-trust doctrine did not impose a fiduciary obligation on the State to affirmatively protect public-trust resources from climate change impacts. The appellate court concluded that the doctrine was “rooted in the idea that the state is restrained from disposing or allowing uses of public-trust resources that substantially impair the recognized public use of those resources” and found no source under the doctrine for imposing duties on the State to “affirmatively act to protect public-trust resources from the effects of climate change.” The appellate court therefore directed a trial court to enter a declaratory judgment in favor the State defendants. The appellate court declined to address other issues raised by the plaintiffs on appeal, including whether the public-trust doctrine applied to resources other than submerged or submersible lands.