Shaw

Michael Shaw, his wife, Joanne Shaw, and their business, JN and MC Shaw Management Corp., doing business as JM Management Company, appeal from the trial court’s adverse judgment after a bifurcated bench trial on liability issues relating to their claims against the County of Santa Cruz and two of its employees for inverse condemnation, negligence, trespass, and nuisance. The judgment also dismissed with prejudice the Shaws’ remaining claims that were never tried, some of which concerned asserted civil rights and constitutional violations. All the Shaws’ claims related to their undeveloped 74-acre parcel of real property located in La Selva Beach that they call Liberty Garden (the property) as an expression of their belief that “individual liberty and ecological health are inseparable.”

The Shaws acquired the undeveloped property in 1985. It had been used for various purposes by previous owners, including cattle grazing. When the Shaws acquired it, the property’s vegetation was unmanaged and in places, the terrain was largely covered in weeds, poison oak, and other uncontrolled plantlife. Since 1985, the Shaws have expended much effort and funds to successfully restore…