Few people have fought any city hall all the way to the US Supreme Court and won, but Fane Lozman did it twice. Now the Florida city that he has battled since 2006 is going to pay him thousands of dollars in legal fees.
The Riviera Beach City Council on Wednesday voted to approve an US$875,000 settlement with Lozman, who began his legal odyssey with a fight over seizure of his floating home and then claimed a breach of his First Amendment rights when he was arrested at a council meeting.
The money is to be paid by an insurance company, the city’s Web site said.
Photo: AP
In both cases, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Lozman, 58, who said that he has spent more than a decade on these cases.
Riviera Beach is a city of about 35,000 people on the east coast of Florida, north of US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Lozman, a former US Marine pilot who became wealthy after inventing software for futures and options trading, initially ran afoul of Riviera Beach in 2006 over an 18m-long floating home that he had docked at the city marina.
Lozman had begun protesting a multibillion-dollar redevelopment plan at the marina, since abandoned, but his floating home was eventually seized and destroyed.
He sued and the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the city had no such right in a decision that academics have said clarified exactly what a vessel is under maritime law.
“Not every floating structure is a ‘vessel.’ To state the obvious, a wooden washtub, a plastic dishpan, a swimming platform on pontoons, a large fishing net, a door taken off its hinges, or Pinocchio [when inside the whale] are not ‘vessels,’ even if they are ‘artificial contrivances’ capable of floating, moving under tow, and incidentally carrying even a fair-sized item or two when they do so,” US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said.
Meanwhile, Lozman was arrested while attempting to speak to the city council during a 2006 meeting. Although the charges were dropped, Lozman sued on grounds of a First Amendment violation.
The Supreme Court in 2018 agreed with Lozman, leading to the settlement over his legal fees in that matter.
Lozman said that he is proud of what he and his lawyers have accomplished.
“I’m glad we made a stand and that’s what it is going to take,” Lozman said.
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