High court denies treehouse review

The U.S. Supreme Court has shown no interest in reviewing a Holmes Beach treehouse case.

The highest court in the nation responded May 3 to treehouse owners Richard Hazen and Lynn Tran-Hazen’s December 2020 writ of certiorari asking for a review of the case by declining it without comment, according to the clerk of court’s website, www.supremecourt.gov.

“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court denied our petition,” Tran-Hazen wrote in a May 6 email to The Islander. “It is what it is, we can only try the best we can at each step in the legal process.”

This is the second time the U.S. Supreme Court has declined a petition from the property owners to review the Hazens’ cases.

They previously sought a hearing on a constitutional claim with the court in 2018. The court also declined to hear that petition without comment, which is not unusual.

The property owners’ newest petition to the high court sought to appeal a July 17, 2020, ruling from the 11th Judicial Circuit Court dismissing their case against the city and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on the grounds that the ruling violated their constitutional rights under the First, Fifth, Eighth and 14th amendments.

The court receives about 10,000 petitions a year and, in recent years, issued full opinions in fewer than 100 cases per year.

Jay Daigneault, the city’s attorney on the treehouse case, told The Islander May 4 the high court’s May 3 decision didn’t take him by surprise.

“The denial is fully in line with my expectations for the case,” Daigneault said. “The next step is simply to attempt to bring the other proceedings to an end.”

“The city would like to stop litigating with these folks but they have to take the treehouse down,” he added, stressing that did not mean they also must remove the tree.

The case began in 2011, when the property owners built the treehouse around an Australian pine tree — including buried concrete pilings — beyond the erosion control line and without a permit on their beachfront property at 103 29th St., Holmes Beach.

The Hazens reside at the property, where they operate four vacation rental units as Angelinos Sea Lodge.

The city found the structure in violation of the municipality’s land development code and moved for its removal in 2013, sparking litigation with the owners.

The Hazens have been on the losing end of each ruling and several lawsuits and appeals in circuit court.

Litigation has so far cost the city $184,955 and the property owners $170,000, according to the parties.

Additionally, the property owners have received almost $105,000 in code violation fines from the city, unpaid as of May 7.

A circuit court case between the parties remains open and Sarasota attorney Michael Connolly, the city’s special magistrate, ruled in April to add a $125 daily fine against the property owners for operating vacation rental units at the property without a city license.

Connolly had ruled in March that the pair must stop renting and advertising their vacation units until they acquire a valid vacation rental certificate, which they failed to do by the April hearing.

The fines will continue to add up until the property owners obtain a vacation rental license  — which would first require they pay the $105,000 in back fines.

The property owners’ attorney, Bruce Minnick, has argued that the city codes are unconstitutional and said the city wants to remove the Australian pine tree the treehouse was built around.

Daigneault said the city has never required the tree’s removal — just the treehouse.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court denied the property owners’ petition, the remaining circuit court case against the city could be their only hope.

However, that case also may be on its last legs.

The city and DEP filed motions in February to dismiss the case, citing the property owners’ failure to comply with court-ordered directives and state causes of action for which relief can be granted.

12th Circuit Judge Charles Sniffen was set to hold a May 3 hearing on the motions to dismiss the case, but the hearing was continued due to scheduling conflicts.

It now is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 9, at the Manatee County Judicial Center, 1051 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.

“We will continue with those cases and evaluate any other avenues we can pursue unless the city is willing to work with us to come to some happy conclusion,” Tran-Hazen wrote.

“Tearing down and killing another ancient Australian pine and the now decade-old treehouse within it, that many like and enjoy, is certainly not a happy conclusion,” she added.