Chernaik v. Kitzhaber

The Oregon Court of Appeals reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a public trust doctrine lawsuit. The trial court had concluded that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the action, in which plaintiffs sought declaratory and equitable relief for the State of Oregon’s failures to meet its fiduciary obligations to protect natural resources such as the atmosphere from the impacts of climate change. The trial court grounded its conclusion in separation of powers and political question concerns. The appellate court ruled that the trial court had authority under the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act to issue a declaration of whether the atmosphere and other natural resources were “trust resources” that the State of Oregon had a fiduciary obligation to protect from climate change impacts. The court rejected defendants’ contention that such declarations would not amount to the sort of “meaningful relief” required to make plaintiffs’ claims justiciable. The appellate court declined to address the merits of plaintiffs’ claims, indicating that such a determination would only be possible after the parties had litigated the merits and a court had declared “the scope of the public trust doctrine and defendants’ obligations, if any, under it.”