Supreme Court Upholds Ruling on Summers End Marina

The V.I. Supreme Court issued a ruling Tuesday that allows the Summer’s End Group’s marina project in Coral Bay, St. John to move forward. Judge Rhys Hodge upheld a ruling issued last May by the V.I. Superior Court.

The lawsuit, filed by Save Coral Bay, a community action group opposed to the marina, challenged the governor’s approval of modifications made to the project’s Coastal Zone Management permit. The modified permit was subsequently approved by the Virgin Islands Legislature and signed into law.

Save Coral Bay filed an appeal with the Supreme Court 10 days after the Superior Court’s ruling last May, but last week the top court ruled that the case was moot.

The judge’s decision was not made on the issue of whether or not Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. broke the law when he modified a CZM permit and then sent it to the V.I. Legislature for approval; rather, Hodge’s decision was based on procedures set forth in the Revised Organic Act, which in the absence of a constitution, sets the framework for Virgin Islands law.

Hodge wrote, “Save Coral Bay maintains that the Legislature cannot ratify an action by the Governor which is contrary to statute … But this is not a case where Governor Bryan acted contrary to a statute and then he or another Executive Branch entity attempted to retroactively ratify his own conduct.”

“Instead, this is a case where the Legislature ratified an action taken by Governor Bryan. Therefore, the proper inquiry is not into the power of Governor Bryan or the Executive Branch, but the power of the Legislature itself to excuse violations of the statutory law,” Hodge wrote.

“Even if this Court were to assume — without deciding — that this procedure differs from that set forth in the Coastal Zone Management Act, the passage of the CZM Act by an earlier Legislature could not deprive the 33rd Legislature and Governor Bryan of their constitutional authority to change that law in the manner provided for in the Revised Organic Act,” Hodge wrote.

“Whatever the merits of Save Coral Bay’s claims under the law as it existed at the time it filed its complaint, the subsequent enactment of Act No. 8407 rendered those claims moot. Therefore, we affirm the Superior Court’s May 12, 2021 order,” Hodge concluded.

David Silverman, president of Save Coral Bay, said he was trying to make sense of the ruling. “It is my understanding that the Chief Justice said that regardless of whether or not Governor Bryan followed the legal procedure for modifying CZM permits when the Legislature ratified what he had done, it made it all legal. The Chief Justice decided that the action by the Legislature effectively amended the CZM law for Summer’s End Group.”