| Issue #27, September 29, 2006 |
TRUSTEES WIN FIGHT FOR A SOUTHAMPTON BEACH
By David Stoll
New York State Supreme Court Justice John J. J. Jones, Jr. has issued an important ruling in a case that pitted beachfront homeowners against Suffolk County, Southampton Village and the Southampton Town Trustees. At its most mundane, the suit concerned whether the homeowners could prevent people from driving their SUVs and ATVs on the beach in front of their beach homes. But because of the legal doctrines involved, the case upholds important principles and should be welcome to all Hamptons beachgoers.
Access to Hamptons beaches is a bit complicated. All beaches in the Hamptons, from the high water mark of the tides to the southerly crest of the dunes, have been held in public trust since Colonial times for all Hamptons property owners, by the East Hampton Town Trustees and the Southampton Town Trustees. Even when a village is formed out of one of the two townships, the beaches remain under Trustee control, although the Trustees often permit the towns and villages to issue various permit regulations concerning beach use. Beach parking lots, on the other hand, generally are controlled by the towns and villages.
Separately, New York State law mandates that towns and villages must provide certain facilities, such as life guards and bathrooms, at any beach that is operated as a “bathing beach.” It is up Suffolk County to determine what beaches are bathing beaches, based upon how the beaches are used. Generally, a beach that is used for swimming is a bathing beach, whereas a beach that is used only for other purposes (surfing, having picnics, driving) is not. The County does not decide which beaches ought to be used as bathing beaches, just which beaches in fact are being used as bathing beaches.
In the Picnic Area lawsuit, Chris Burch, Amy and Van Greenfield, Tod and Harriet Johnson, Nancy Ross, Deanna and Robert Adler, Frances Katz, and Ronald Newman — all Meadow Lane homeowners living between Roads F and G — claimed that allowing vehicles on the beach in front of their homes transforms the beach into a bathing beach. If that were true, the beach is being operated illegally, because there are no lifeguards or bathroom facilities. On this theory, the homeowners sued Suffolk County, demanding that it make a determination that the beach is a bathing beach. The homeowners also sued Southampton Village and the Southampton Trustees, demanding that they prohibit the current use of the beaches (that is, use by vehicles) because there are no “bathing beach” facilities. The homeowners were represented by Stephen R. Angel of Riverhead.
Parts of Justice Jones’s ruling seem at first blush to deal with technical matters relating to government administration and what constitutes a “bathing beach,” but overall, the ruling is quite important in that it recognizes the primacy of the Trustees over Hamptons beaches.
Justice Jones ruled that the evidence did not prove that the Picnic Area beach is obviously a bathing beach. Use of vehicles alone is not sufficient. If there can be any debate over whether a beach is or is not a bathing beach, it is up to the Suffolk County Court administrators to make that determination. Homeowners have no right to force the County to say that one beach or another is a bathing beach absent clarity amounting to “an absolute right” on the part of the homeowner.
If the only issue in the case involved interpretation of regulations concerning bathing beaches and the responsibilities of Suffolk County officials, it would not be so noteworthy. However, Justice Jones also made it a point to rule that the Village of Southampton does not own the relevant beach at all, and therefore has no authority to run it as a bathing beach or any other type of beach. In short, on Trustee beaches, the villages should not even be sued over determinations of how beaches are used.
Even more importantly, Justice Jones recognized the primacy of the Trustees. The Trustees’ “historic public easement” (the Dongan Patent, which is displayed in Southampton Town Hall) is “well-established,” he wrote. He found that the Trustees’ determination to allow a Village permitting process for vehicle use on the Picnic Area beach falls within the Trustees’ power over the beaches. Because the Trustees’ decision was both proper and unrelated to whether a beach is a bathing beach, Justice Jones rejected the homeowners’ claims. “The use of the beachfront by the public under the long-established public easement does not convert the property to a bathing beach under the undisputed facts of this case.”
The September 12 ruling is only three paragraphs long, but it does not lack for substance. The decision should be welcomed by all beachgoers, not because of the specifics of vehicle use but because Justice Jones reaffirmed the important principles that the one government body whose sole purpose is to ensure public access to the beaches — the Trustees — cannot be bullied by any other entity or person.
 |
