Ebb Tide

In 1983, the Ebb Tide predecessor granted the City of Edmonds an easement to allow the public to have an access way between the City owned beaches and over a ten foot wide section of the Ebb Tide privately owned beach on which they pay taxes.  The City paid nothing for the subject easement which makes no mention of granting the City an additional right to construct an elevated walkway which would block the Ebb Tide residents’ views and privacy, while blocking their access to the water.  Since the City nonetheless believed the easement clearly granted such a right, it filed suit against the Ebb Tide seeking a Court Order that it could construct the elevated walkway on the Ebb Tide private beach into the tidelands despite strong objections and pleas from the Ebb Tide. What the City is proposing is not a continuation of the current walkway.  The Ebb Tide does not want a 10 ft. wide and 17 ft. high cement structure across the beach that looks like a pier and would destroy use of the beautiful sandy beach for everyone to walk on. The proposed structure would be very costly to the tax payers of Edmonds and destroy the beach habitat, which is part of what makes Edmonds such a great place to live.

At the beginning of the case, Judge Wilson of Snohomish County Superior Court entered an Order that the subject easement is ambiguous as to whether an elevated walkway is allowed meaning additional evidence is required to determine the parties’intent.  The case was ultimately assigned to Judge Millie Judge for trial.  Before the trial, she entered several orders against the Ebb Tide including for example, an order to not allow it to present evidence at trial that the proposed walkway creates significant risk of injury because it has no railings, which appears to violate the International Building Code.  After a four day trial, Judge Millie Judge essentially ruled the subject Easement is not ambiguous, despite the earlier Court rulings, and in fact allows the City to construct the currently conceptual elevated walkway over and across the Ebb Tide beach. See attached conceptual walkway that the city is proposing. 

Currently people walk on the beach for their enjoyment as access has been provided over the subject easement and they have done so over the years, but with the proposed structure which will completely encompass the easement area, this ability would be destroyed.  The Court surprisingly found the grantors of the subject easement should have known the elevated walkway would block views and access, while also severely impacting their privacy.  Based on the pretrial orders by the same Judge, the ultimate ruling while disappointing, was not a surprise.

Due to the Ebb Tide belief that the ruling contains multiple factual and legal errors, it has filed an appeal seeking relief from the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division 1.  To assist its trial counsel with the appeal, the Ebb tide has retained former Washington State Supreme Court Judge Phil Talmadge and his firm.  The Ebb Tide has great confidence the appeal will be successful.