Glass v. Goeckel

Summary

The Supreme Court of Michigan held that the public trust doctrine protects the public's right to walk along the shores of the Great Lakes, including land lakeward of the ordinary high water mark. Littoral landowners retain private ownership rights subject to public trust rights, and the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act does not define or restrict the common-law scope of those public rights. The court reversed the Michigan Court of Appeals and remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. Private littoral title on the Great Lakes remains subject to the public trust doctrine. The state cannot convey away the public rights preserved by that doctrine.
2. The landward boundary of the public trust on the Great Lakes is the ordinary high water mark, not the water's edge or the land submerged at a particular moment.
3. The public trust doctrine protects pedestrian use of the Great Lakes shoreline up to and including land below the ordinary high water mark, subject to reasonable regulation and the prohibition against trespass beyond the public-trust area.
4. The Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act does not define the boundary of the public trust or create the plaintiff's asserted right to walk along the shoreline; the scope of the trust is governed by Michigan common law.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the public trust doctrine applies to the Great Lakes and limits private littoral title.
2. Whether the public trust extends to the ordinary high water mark rather than only to land submerged at a particular moment or the literal water's edge.
3. Whether walking along the Great Lakes shoreline is a public right protected by the public trust doctrine.
4. Whether the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act defines the boundary of the public trust or creates a right to walk along the shoreline.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded