## Facts

- Joan M. Glass owned property across a highway from Lake Huron and walked along the Lake Huron shoreline in front of Richard and Kathleen Goeckel’s lakefront (littoral) parcel.
- The Goeckels’ deed described their title as extending to the water’s edge (to the meander line) and they treated the adjacent shore as private property.
- The Goeckels asserted Glass was trespassing when she walked along the shore in front of their property.
- Glass claimed a public right, under the public trust doctrine, to walk along the Great Lakes shoreline below the ordinary high-water mark (OHWM), including exposed sand when lake levels recede.

## Issues

1. Whether the public trust doctrine applies to the shores of Michigan’s Great Lakes when a private littoral owner holds record title to the water’s edge.
2. Whether the public trust doctrine includes a public right to walk along the Great Lakes shoreline.
3. Whether the public trust zone extends landward to the ordinary high-water mark or is limited to land that is submerged at a given time.

## Decision

- The Michigan Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated the trial court’s judgment for Glass.
- The Court held the public trust doctrine applies to the Great Lakes and their shorelands in Michigan.
- The Court held walking along the Great Lakes shoreline is a protected public trust use when conducted within the public trust zone.
- The Court defined the landward boundary of the public trust zone as the ordinary high-water mark, rejecting a boundary tied solely to momentary submersion.

## Legal Principles

- The State holds navigable waters and certain adjacent lands in trust for public uses; private littoral title is subject to (and burdened by) those public trust rights.
- Public trust rights along the Great Lakes are not confined to areas covered by visible water at a particular moment; fluctuating lake levels make a stable boundary necessary.
- The public trust zone extends to the ordinary high-water mark, identified by the distinct physical mark left where water action is sufficiently continuous.
- Walking along the shore within the public trust zone is a permissible public use and, when confined to that zone, does not invade the littoral owner’s property rights.

## Conclusion

Michigan recognizes a public right under the public trust doctrine to walk along Great Lakes shorelines up to the ordinary high-water mark, even where littoral owners hold record title to the water’s edge.


Glass v. Goeckel, 703 N.W.2d 58 (Mich. 2005)