Surfrider Foundation wins major legal battle against trillionaire Vinod Khosla

Access to Martins Beach has become public again after 10 years of privatization that the Supreme Court of the United States deemed illegal

October 5, 2018

The US Supreme Court on Monday decided to refuse to hear billionaire Vinod Khosla's appeal against a ban on public access to Martins Beach, local media reported.

In 2013, the Surfrider Foundation sued Khosla for blocking access to the beach where his mansion is located. Beaches in California are public by law, but the billionaire blocked the only route with access to the coast, covered signs indicating that there is a public beach and even hired security guards.

The surfing community won the case, but Khosla continued to appeal the decisions all the way to the Supreme Court. The legal battle ended on Monday when the court refused to take up the case entirely.

“The most conservative and divided Supreme Court in history confirms that even a billionaire, who refuses to acknowledge that the law applies to him and hires the most expensive lawyers he can find, cannot create a private beach,” said Joe Cotchett, Surfrider’s attorney, in a statement.

The conflict over access to Martins Beach began ten years ago when the billionaire decided to buy the property. While beaches in California are public and should be free, the mansion's previous owners were no strangers to what many others do in that state - making a business out of the waves. They charged $10 for access to the beach, which had a public bathroom, parking lot and storage. But Khosla decided not to continue with this because of the cost of keeping the beach in good condition.

Despite the US court's decision, the billionaire will not give up. One of his lawyers, Dori Yob Kilmer, said that he will comply with the lower court's decision but will request a permit from the California Coastal Commission to restrict access.

Khosla's argument for not allowing people onto this beach is that it is an invasion of his private property.

According to Wikipedia, “Khosla is an Indian-American billionaire engineer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems and founder of Khosla Ventures. In 2014, Forbes named him among the 400 richest people in the world.”