Private Beachfront Owners Ruled Not Liable

SANTA ANA —  Owners of private beachfront property are not liable for injuries suffered by people playing in the ocean near the property, an appellate court has ruled.

Affirming a lower court decision, the 4th District Court of Appeal last week said that “owners of a private beach” do not own or control the ocean and therefore “are not responsible for injuries that take place in that ocean.”

The decision ends a four-year court battle for a couple in Cypress Pointe in San Clemente and a homeowners’ association.

A lawsuit filed by Curtis Swann of Temecula, who was paralyzed from the neck down while attending a beach party, alleged that Paul and Madeline Olivier of Cypress Pointe, the Cyprus Shore Community Assn. and two other homeowners’ associations were liable for paying his medical bills and unspecified damages for pain and suffering.

Swann was a friend of a guest at a beach party when he was injured during the summer of 1990. He brought the lawsuit against the Oliviers and the homeowners’ associations that allowed the beach party to take place, charging them with failing to warn him of any beach hazards.

Swann’s lawsuit was dismissed by an Orange County Superior Court judge, and he appealed the decision to the appellate court.

Madeline Olivier welcomed the latest decision.

“We’ve had this case a very long time,” she said Friday. “It’s a decision that was needed to be made and needed to be clarified.”

Attorney Thomas G. Chambers, who represented the Oliviers, said the case initially involved Cyprus Shore, Cypress Pointe, and Cyprus Cove homeowner associations.

“These three different associations had created all these agreements for people crossing over on their property headed to the ocean,” Chambers said.

Cypress Pointe and Cyprus Cove were eventually dismissed as defendants.

In its ruling, the appeals court said it could not hold the Oliviers and Cyprus Shore liable for the “defective or dangerous condition of property which (they) did not own, possess, or control.”

The court pointed out that Swann admitted that he was injured in the “surf” of a public beach near Cyprus Shore’s private property.

“The idea that the Cyprus Shore Community Assn. or Paul and Madeline Olivier can control the ocean adjacent to their land is nothing short of ludicrous,” the appeals court said in its ruling.

Swann could not be reached for comment.