## Facts

- Owners of a riparian lot in a platted waterfront subdivision on Boca Ciega Bay alleged that neighboring developers’ proposed dredge-and-fill would interfere with their riparian rights.
- The developers owned upland lots in the same subdivision and had acquired additional submerged lands from the state trustees.
- The subdivision’s shoreline was man-made and irregular, including a long peninsula and several projecting “fingers,” affecting how riparian corridors to the channel would be allocated.
- The riparian owners’ lot fronted the bay and faced the channel; the developers’ upland lots were north of the riparian owners’ lot.
- The developers obtained a 270-foot-wide strip of submerged land extending easterly toward the channel and planned to dredge and fill it.
- The riparian owners claimed the proposed fill would materially obstruct their line of sight to the bay/channel and impair ingress and egress from their property to deep water.

## Issues

1. Whether the developers’ proposed fill on newly acquired submerged lands would encroach upon and unlawfully interfere with neighboring upland owners’ common-law riparian rights of access and view.
2. How riparian boundaries should be projected and apportioned in an irregular, artificially created shoreline configuration to preserve each upland owner’s fair opportunity for access to the channel.

## Decision

- The Florida Supreme Court reversed the summary final decree entered for the developers.
- The court held that the proposed fill, as planned, would invade the neighboring upland owners’ riparian rights by unreasonably interfering with their access to and view of navigable waters and the channel.
- The court ruled that title to submerged lands obtained from the state did not authorize fill that destroys or materially impairs preexisting riparian rights of adjacent upland owners.
- The cause was remanded for further proceedings consistent with protecting the affected riparian corridor.

## Legal Principles

- Riparian rights are property rights incident to ownership of uplands bordering navigable waters, including the right of access to the water and a right to an unobstructed view over the water.
- In irregular or artificially configured shorelines, riparian rights must be apportioned by a fair and equitable method that provides each upland owner a proportionate, reasonable corridor for access to deep water and the channel.
- An owner who acquires submerged lands may not dredge and fill in a manner that unreasonably interferes with neighboring upland owners’ riparian rights; state conveyances of submerged lands are subject to those preexisting rights.
- Mechanical projection of lot lines is not controlling where it would confer excessive access on one owner and substantially impair another’s access and view; equity governs the allocation of riparian lines in such settings.

## Conclusion

The court reversed a summary decree permitting a proposed dredge-and-fill project because the fill would unreasonably obstruct neighboring riparian owners’ access and view; equitable apportionment of riparian corridors is required where shorelines and plats are irregular, and state-granted submerged land rights remain subordinate to existing riparian rights.


Hayes v. Bowman, 91 So. 2d 795 (Fla. 1957)