GoingViral

A tech billionaire blocks public beach access, court forced him to open it

Some call it the Witch’s Hat, while others call Shark Tooth. Vinod Khosla, billionaire and a co-founder of Sun Microsystems enriched by investments in Silicon Valley venture capital, paid $32.5 million in 2008 for land adjacent to the coast, including the only road to Martins Beach, cutting off access to the beach with a closed gate and painted over access signs in 2009.

migrator

California

Private security guards roamed the public beach south of San Francisco, tossing out surfers and swimmers found there. On Thursday, Khosla learned not to mess with surfers, when he lost an appeal to bar public access to the Martins Beach Road. 

A three-judge panel of the California 1st District Court of Appeals rejected the appeal of Khosla’s management companies, Martins Beach 1 and Martins Beach 2, in a suit challenging the legality of his road blockage, filed in March 2013 by the Surfrider Foundation. 

The decision also ordered Khosla to pay nearly $500,000 in attorney costs.

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