Hyland v. BOROUGH OF ALLENHURST, CTY. OF MONMOUTH

393 A.2d 579, 78 N.J. 190, 1978 N.J. LEXIS 239
CourtSupreme Court of New Jersey
DecidedOctober 16, 1978
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 393 A.2d 579 (Hyland v. BOROUGH OF ALLENHURST, CTY. OF MONMOUTH) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hyland v. BOROUGH OF ALLENHURST, CTY. OF MONMOUTH, 393 A.2d 579, 78 N.J. 190, 1978 N.J. LEXIS 239 (N.J. 1978).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Sullivan, J.

This appeal, having a background similar to Van Ness v. Borough of Deal, 78 N. J. 174, also decided by us this day, is taken as a matter of right by virtue of a dissent in the Appellate Division.

The Borough of Allenhurst is a small oceanside community in Monmouth County, immediately to the south of the Borough of Deal. It is .3 of a square mile in area and consists of six streets running in a north-south direction, and six streets running east-west. Its eastern boundary is the Atlantic Ocean. The Borough is almost wholly residential in character. There are no hotels, motels, rooming or boarding houses in Allenhurst. Its population fluctuates between [192]*192approximately 1100 residents in the off-season and 1400 during the summer months.

The Allenhurst beach is 1600 feet in length of which 1200 feet is owned by the Borough and dedicated to public use. Only a 250-300 foot area is suitable for bathing. Use of the beach is limited by jetties, rocks and pilings, and the southern portion of the beach is washed by the ocean at high tide.

The Borough owns and maintains a beach club adjacent to the municipally owned beach. It was built by the Borough in the 1930’s and presently consists of bathhouses, cabanas, a restaurant, several snack bars, sundecks, chaises and lounges, rest rooms and one large and two small swimming pools. It also has two small parking lots with a total capacity for 14 cars.

Membership in the club is open to nonresidents of Allen-hurst as well as to residents on a seasonal or half-seasonal basis, but nonresidents are charged higher fees than residents for use of beach club facilities. The beach fee is the same for residents and nonresidents. As a practical matter, though, one had to be a member of the club in order to use the beach, as an Allenhurst ordinance forbade the appearance on a public street of a person in bathing attire. This ordinance effectively prevented anyone from changing into a bathing suit except at the beach club. The complaint filed by the Attorney General charged the Borough with illegal and discriminatory practices in the maintenance and operation of its beach and beach club.

The trial judge, in an oral opinion, sustained the Attorney General’s complaint. He held that this Court’s decision in Bor. of Neptune v. Bor. of Avon-by-the-Sea, 61 N. J. 296 (1972) required that man-made facilities adjacent to a publicly owned beach and essential to the meaningful enjoyment of the beach area must be made available to all on an equal basis. Accordingly, he ruled that club membership fees had to be the same whether for residents or nonresidents. He also viewed as unreasonably restrictive the limiting of [193]*193memberships to seasonal and half-seasonal permits. He ordered that Allenhurst institute a plan to provide for daily membership admission to all club facilities at a cost which was related only to the expenses of operating the beach itself. Einal judgment was entered on July 13, 1976 embodying the aforesaid rulings. Notice of appeal was promptly filed by defendants.

When Allenhurst failed to submit a suitable plan for daily membership, the trial judge, by order dated August 2, 1976, and an amending order dated September 13, 1976, devised a plan whereby members of the public, up to 100 in number, were to be admitted to the beach on a daily basis at a cost of $2 on weekdays and $3 on weekends and holidays. Children under 12 years of age were to be admitted without charge. Users of the beach were to be provided with access to a source of drinking water.

The September 13 order additionally invalidated the borough ordinance prohibiting the appearance on a public street of a person in bathing attire. It also stayed those portions of the final judgment pertaining to beach club facilities other than the sand beach pending the outcome of defendants’ appeal. Defendants filed a notice of appeal from the September 13 order (except for the stay), but thereafter entered into a stipulation dismissing the appeal from that order.

The Appellate Division in a reported opinion, Hyland v. Borough of Allenhurst, 148 N. J. Super. 437 (1977), reversed in part. It sustained the trial judge’s ruling that the publicly owned dry beach area must be open to all on equal terms. After noting that aiceess to the public beach was available through two entryways, exclusive of the access thereto from the club, the Appellate Division held:

v * * To dispel any possible confusion and despite tbe agreement of counsel on this point, we expressly bold that tbe general public is entitled to access to both tbe public trust lands along tbe Allenhurst shoreline and to all portions of the dedicated beach area in that mu[194]*194nicipality for a fee no greater than that charged residents for similar use. To the extent that the trial judge so held, we affirm.
Id. at 441.

The Appellate Division reversed the trial ruling that membership fees for club facilities had to be the same for residents and nonresidents. It found nothing in our decision in Avon which required that the Public Trust Doctrine be made applicable to man-made facilities adjacent to publicly owned beaches. Instead, it sustained the different charges for club membership as not discriminatory but, rather, a legally justifiable attempt to equalize the nonresident and resident financial contributions to the maintenance of club facilities.1

The Appellate Division also reversed the trial judge’s mandate that some provision be made for daily use of club facilities in addition to the seasonal and half-seasonal memberships. It found the limitation on use of club facilities to seasonal memberships to constitute an entirely reasonable attempt by the municipality to insure the orderly use and maximum enjoyment of a limited municipal facility. It reiterated its conclusion that the Public Trust Doctrine applied only to natural resources subject to it and not to man-made facilities.

One Appellate Division judge dissented on the latter point. While conceding that a municipality need not provide changing and toilet facilities for users of the public beach, since such facilities had been established by the municipality, he concluded that they or comparable facilities must be made available to residents and nonresidents on a daily basis without discrimination. By virtue of the dissent, the Attorney General has appealed as of right. B. 3:3-1 (a) (3).

[195]*195Many of the issues involved in the original suit have been resolved and are not the subject of the present appeal. Allenhurst has withdrawn its appeal from the rulings of the trial judge which (1) invalidated the borough ordinance prohibiting the wearing of beach apparel on a public street and (2) required the borough to make its beach area available to non-club members on a daily basis at a uniform charge for residents and nonresidents.

The Attorney General no longer disputes “the right of the Borough to charge differential fees for membership in the Club as between residents and nonresidents of the Borough,” in view of the evidence indicating that the construction of the club has been financed in part by taxation of borough residents and that the expense of its maintenance was being defrayed through general tax revenues.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bor. of Avalon v. Nj Dept. of Environmental Protection
959 A.2d 1215 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 2008)
Raleigh Ave. Ass'n v. Atlantis Club
851 A.2d 19 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 2004)
Matthews v. Bay Head Improvement Ass'n
471 A.2d 355 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1984)
Sea Watch, Inc. v. Borough of Manasquan
451 A.2d 192 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1982)
Lusardi v. Curtis Point Property Owners Ass'n
430 A.2d 881 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1981)
Hyland v. BOROUGH OF ALLENHURST, CTY. OF MONMOUTH
393 A.2d 579 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1978)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
393 A.2d 579, 78 N.J. 190, 1978 N.J. LEXIS 239, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hyland-v-borough-of-allenhurst-cty-of-monmouth-nj-1978.