Supreme Court Denies Compensation to Owners in Beach Replenishment

by: Anthony F. Della Pelle
17 Jun 2010

This morning, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the state of Florida can proceed with beach replenishment projects without paying property owners who lose private beach access rights as a result.   

The unanimous vote of the Court in Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection rejected claims by property owners on Florida’s Gulf Coast that they were entitled to compensation because the project took their private beaches away from them and that their oceanfront properties were now converted to ocean view properties.  Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court which concludes that the Florida Supreme Court did not take property without just compensation in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. 

Preliminary review of the Court’s opinion, available here, indicates that this ruling was based upon the finding that the State, as the owner of the land beneath the water line has the right to fill that land under Florida law, so long as it does not interfere with the rights of the public and adjacent property owners.  Furthermore, Florida law also provides that if an “avulsion” occurs, exposing previously submerged land seaward of the waterfront property,  that land belongs to the State even if it interferes with the private property owner’s previous contact with the water.  

This decision rejected the owners’ claim that a judicial decision (here by the Florida Supreme Court in favor of the beach replenishment project) could amount to a taking of property because, in effect the federal Court concluded that the owners’ rights (to own a private beach on tidal waters) were subordinate to the public’s rights (to the public waters and lands beneath them) to begin with.

Justice John Paul Stevens declined to participate in the 8-0 decision, apparently becaues he owns property in an oceanfront building in southern Florida which has been slated for a beach replenishment project like the one decided today.

More to follow on this important decision after we have time to digest the Court’s opinion and reflect upon it.

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