Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, USSC Case No. 08-1151

Despite overwhelming odds, HGS attorneys Richard Brightman and Kent Safriet and their client, Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc., persuaded the United States Supreme Court to grant certiorari to review a September 2008 Florida Supreme Court opinion that eliminated private property rights.  On June 15, 2009, the United States Supreme Court decided to consider the case of private property owners affected by Florida’s beach nourishment program.  Oral argument is anticipated to be scheduled in December 2009.

In Stop the Beach Renourishment, the United States Supreme Court will review a Florida Supreme Court opinion which concluded that the State’s establishment of an Erosion Control Line (“ECL”) did not cause a taking of littoral property rights. Pursuant to the Beach and Shore Preservation Act, the State can establish an ECL as the new property boundary for a beachfront property owner, and the change in the property’s boundary divests the property of constitutionally protected common law littoral rights associated with ownership of property to the mean high water mark.

In the Petition for Certiorari, HGS lawyers argued that the Florida Supreme Court opinion changed 100 years of Florida law defining littoral rights – which are compensable property rights – to avoid a taking, and in so doing, caused a taking of affected beachfront property owners’ property rights. HGS has represented the beachfront property owners from the filing of the initial administrative petition challenging the State’s actions through the appeals to the Florida First District Court of Appeal and Florida Supreme Court, and have now obtained United States Supreme Court review for the beachfront property owners.

Steven Gieseler with Pacific Legal Foundation (www.pacificlegal.org) assisted through the filing of an Amicus Curiae brief.

The Petition for Certiorari (as well as other pleadings) are available at Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

For any questions, please contact Richard Brightman or Kent Safriet at (850) 222-7500 or richardb@hgslaw.com or kents@hgslaw.com.