ELR Citation: 46 ELR 20085
No(s). A142035 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr 27, 2016)

A California appellate court affirmed in part and reversed in part a trial court's summary adjudication in favor of the property owners in their dispute with a citizen's group over the use of a road, parking area, and the inland dry sand of a popular beach. There is no disagreement that the defendants own these areas and the property of which they are a part. Rather, the group claimed that a provision of the California Constitution confers on the public a right of access over private property to the tidelands. The group also claimed that under the common law of dedication, the owners' predecessors—who owned the property from early in the 20th century until it was sold to the current owners in 2008—offered to dedicate the road, parking area, and inland sand to public use over a period of decades. The group argued the predecessors dedicated the land through their words and acts, and that the public accepted that offer by using those parts of the property. The court rejected the group's constitutional theory that all California beaches are public. But it reversed the lower court's grant of summary adjudication on the group's dedication claims because the record is insufficient to establish that there was no dedication as a matter of law. The dedication claims were therefore remanded.