The Gerald P. Zarrella Trust v. Town of Exeter

Citations

• 176 A.3d 467

Syllabus

The plaintiffs, the Gerald P. Zarrella Trust et al., appealed a Superior Court judgment denying their request for declaratory relief. The thrust of the plaintiffs' lawsuit was that an injunction prohibiting them from hosting commercial events on Zarrella's Exeter farmland had been superseded by an amendment to G.L. 1956 § 2-23-4(a), a section of Rhode Island's Right to Farm Act. Before the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs argued that hosting commercial events, such as weddings for a fee, was an \agricultural operation\ as defined by § 2-23-4(a), and, as such, the town was preempted from prohibiting it. The defendants, the Town of Exeter and members of its town council, argued that the language the plaintiffs relied on was merely a statement of policy, which did not expand the definition of \agricultural operations\ or supersede the injunction prohibiting the plaintiffs from hosting commercial events. After considering the parties' arguments, the Supreme Court agreed with the defendants, holding that even if hosting commercial events, like weddings for a fee, fell within the ambit of the amended language, that language did not expand the definition of \agricultural operations\ for purposes of the Right to Farm Act. Rather, the Supreme Court concluded, the amended language was an expression of policy preference, listing encouraged uses of land. Therefore, because the amendment to § 2-23-4(a) did not supersede the injunction, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Superior Court.