Opinion ID: 2321422
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Common Law Roots of Shoreland Property Rights

Text: [¶ 8] Describing the nature and extent of the public's right to use the intertidal zone has challenged courts in the United States for centuries. Many jurists and authors have struggled to balance the public's rights with the rights of private landowners. [¶ 9] In Maine, the upland owner ordinarily has fee ownership of the intertidal land, and that private ownership is subject to the public's right to use the intertidal zone. [2] Both the origin of the private ownership of intertidal land and the public's right to use that land are a matter of common law. [3] The common law, with its flexibility and capacity for growth and adaptation, Pendexter v. Pendexter, 363 A.2d 743, 749 (Me.1976) (Dufresne, C.J., concurring), has continually evolved to reflect the realities of a changing world. As this unique body of common law has developed, generations of jurists have searched for a basic set of principles to govern the ownership and use of the intertidal land. [¶ 10] The common law does not always develop along a straight path. This particular area of common law, involving important competing property interests, certainly has not developed with linear precision. Interpreting the common law available to us, however, we understand the public's right to use the intertidal zone to encompass the right of the public to pass over that land to reach the ocean in order to scuba dive. [4] [¶ 11] Additionally, because the relevant activity here involves use of the intertidal land only to enter the sea, rather than to stand or to stay, we do not determine whether other, additional uses of the intertidal zone fall within the public trust rights, including the uses related to surfing presented by amicus curiae Surfrider Foundation. Instead, we leave the next question in the evolution of this area of common law for future determination. [5] Today we answer only the question before us: consistent with the common law, may Bird and his guests use McGarvey's intertidal land to reach the ocean to scuba dive? [6]