English
The case concerned standing for eleemosynary organisations and corporations to enforce environmental law, but also the use of preliminary injunction as a remady. The plaintiff in the case was Le Vaomatua, a corporation with the objective to preserve and protect the environment.
The contested action by the American Samoa Government was to lease a piece of land situated next to the Pala Lagoon to the other defendants, Ray and Sese McMoore and Samoana Fellowship Incorporated, so that they could develop a community centre with activities for the youth and senior citizens. The plaintiff claimed that this was in non-compliance with the environmental law of the territory and sought a preliminary injunction to enjoin the defendants from constructing the centre next to the lagoon.
Standing to enforce provisions of environmental law requires two criteria to be met. The first criterion is that the party must have suffered an “injury-in-fact” and the second criterion is that the alleged injury must arguably be within the statute’s “zone of interest”. The court established that aesthetic and environmental harm could constitute such an injury. However, the court found that the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate a specific harm to itself or to its members and stated that corporate objectives were not enough to show that they had sufficient interest in the case. Le Vaomatua therefore did not have standing to pursue the action.
The second part of the judgment concerned preliminary injunctions as a remedy. The court stated that this is an extraordinary remedy, only to be used when clearly warranted. In this case, the plaintiff had not demonstrated that a preliminary injunction was necessary, and near equivalent administrative procedures were readily available. The court finally stated that there were no sufficient grounds for the issuance of a preliminary injunction even in the case that the plaintiff had been granted standing.