Adjacent properties with a common property line fronted a body of water. The littoral water beyond their shoreline was included in the ownership of the properties. The owner of one lot had a boat, which when docked, was entirely within the extension of their common property line into the littoral, the lots themselves being diagonal to the shoreline. The county assessor’s maps showed the ownership of the littoral rights for each lot as perpendicular to the shoreline at the point the common property line met the shoreline, in which case the owner’s boat straddled the property line into the littoral as shown by the assessor’s map. The neighbor owning the adjacent lot made a demand on the owner to remove his boat from the neighbor’s side of the property line into the littoral perpendicular to the shoreline as shown on the assessor’s maps, claiming the owner was trespassing on his property since the neighbor’s boat was on his side of the assessor-designated line into the littoral. The owner claimed he was not infringing on the neighbor’s property, since the line for setting the ownership was an extension of the common property line into the littoral, not a line set perpendicular to the shoreline at the point the common property line meets the shoreline. A California court of appeals held the owner was required to remove his boat from the neighbor’s property as it was trespassing on the owner’s right to possession of the littoral since a property line extending into the littoral is determined by the county assessor’s current records, which indicated the property line into the littoral is perpendicular to the shoreline. [Kendall v. Walker (2009) 181 CA4th 584]
