Opinion ID: 1356988
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Estoppel and laches.

Text: (5) Defendant contends that plaintiffs should be estopped from claiming the public recreational easement here found to exist by the trial court. It is urged that the County, by assessing and taxing the property as if it were private and not subject to such an easement, and the officials of the Cities of Redondo Beach and Torrance by applying their zoning and building ordinances to the property on the same assumption, thereby represented to defendant and her husband that the said assumption was true. The Berks, it is argued, relied on this representation to their detriment. We see no merit in this argument. The trial court found, on the basis of substantial evidence, that plaintiffs lacked any actual knowledge that a public easement existed on the subject property, that they at no time acted with an intent to deceive the Berks or any of their predecessors in this respect, and that they were guilty of no culpable negligence in treating the property as they did. Moreover, any reliance by the Berks on the actions of the governmental entities here involved was clearly unreasonable. It simply cannot be maintained that an existing or prospective property owner, upon being advised by planning and building officials that a given project complies with applicable local codes, thereby gains the right to proceed with that project regardless of the rights of third parties or the public in the property on which it is proposed to be built. Finally, any such reliance must also be deemed unreasonable in light of the Berks' knowledge of the long-continued public user of the property  the Gion-Dietz decision having been rendered by this court five months prior to the opening of escrow. It is suggested that there is some inherent inconsistency in a determination that whereas governmental officials were not culpably negligent in treating the property as if it were not burdened with a public easement, the Berks and others in the chain of title acted other than reasonably in relying on such treatment in their own assessment of the status of the property. The short answer to this, of course, is that the owner of property or one proposing to acquire it cannot justify his ignorance of the true state of the facts and the law affecting it by pointing to similar ignorance in government bodies. Negligence which may be less than culpable in a government body, charged with the administration and regulation of vast amounts of land under diverse ownership, cannot be so easily excused in one whose interest is focused upon a particular piece of property. Even if the elements of estoppel [13] here appeared  which as we have indicated they do not  this is not a case in which an estoppel could properly be raised against the government and the people to defeat a claim of public recreational easement. It is well established that an estoppel will not be raised against such parties when to do so would nullify a strong rule of policy, adopted for the benefit of the public, ... ( County of San Diego v. Cal. Water etc. Co. (1947) 30 Cal.2d 817, 829-830 [186 P.2d 124, 175 A.L.R. 747]; cf. City of Long Beach v. Mansell, supra, 3 Cal.3d 462, 493-501. As we pointed out in Gion-Dietz, there is a clearly enunciated public policy in this state in favor of allowing public access to shoreline areas. (2 Cal.3d at pp. 42-43.) To allow the raising of an estoppel to defeat the claim of public right here involved would be manifestly contrary to this policy. Considerations identical to the foregoing support the trial court's refusal to permit the assertion of the equitable defense of laches. (See People v. Department of Housing & Community Dev. (1975) 45 Cal. App.3d 185, 196 [119 Cal. Rptr. 266], and cases there cited.)