US Supreme Court denies review in Martins Beach case

The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a Silicon Valley billionaire's challenge to a California law ensuring public access to the state's beaches, the justices announced Monday.

The decision not to take the case keeps in place a 2017 California Court of Appeal ruling that said Sun Microsystems Inc. co-founder Vinod Khosla was required to obtain a coastal development permit before closing a road on private land that connected Highway 1 to San Mateo County coastline known as Martin's Beach. Surfrider Foundation v. Martins Beach 1 LLC, 14 Cal. App. 5th 238 (2017).

Khosla bought a 32-acre coastal area in 2008 and shut public access to the beach in 2010.Representing the environmental group Surfrider Foundation, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP got a San Mateo Superior County Court judge to agree in 2014 that Khosla should have requested permission to close access from the California Coastal Commission before doing so.

The appeal court affirmed that decision in 2017.

For Khosla, the years-long battle has been a principled fight over private property rights. So invested in the case has been Khosla, that he hired Supreme Court bar heavyweight Paul D. Clement, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, to help obtain high court review.

Eric J. Buescher, principal at Cotchett, Pitre who has worked on the team representing Surfrider, said, "It's a great decision for the people of California and the California Coastal Act. The fact that the Supreme Court is not going to review the requirement is a victory for everyone."

Dori Yob Kilmer, a partner at Hopkins & Carley who represents the corporate entities owned by Khosla that were named in the suit as defendants, said she was "disappointed" in the decision.

"No business owner should be forced to obtain a permit from the government to shut down a private business," she said in an email. "No owner . . . should be forced to obtain a permit from the government before deciding who it wants to invite onto its property."

Kilmer said her clients will apply for the required permits now. If the applications are unsuccessful, they "will start this process over again."