Supreme Court to hear clash over floating home

March 25, 2012 at 2:47 p.m.

by The Associated Press

This undated photo provided by Fane Lozman shows his dismantled home in Riviera Beach, Fla. Court documents refer to it as “that certain unnamed gray, two-story vessel approximately 57 feet in length.” To Lozman, it was a floating Florida home never intended to sail the seas. Now a long-running dispute over exactly what the structure was has landed before the U.S. Supreme Court.
This undated photo provided by Fane Lozman shows his dismantled home in Riviera Beach, Fla. Court documents refer to it as “that certain unnamed gray, two-story vessel approximately 57 feet in length.” To Lozman, it was a floating Florida home never intended to sail the seas. Now a long-running dispute over exactly what the structure was has landed before the U.S. Supreme Court.

MIAMI — A case flowing out of a nearly six-year battle between a South Florida city and a man who lost his floating home is going before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court agreed to hear 50-year-old Fane Lozman's appeal in his legal fight with the City of Riviera Beach. The city was able to take and demolish Lozman's floating structure in 2009 by getting a federal judge to rule that it was a vessel subject to maritime laws, not a house.

The case is being watched closely around the country by people who live on the water and commercial businesses such as floating casinos.

Attorneys say the Supreme Court took Lozman's case because appeals courts have issued conflicting decisions on the definition of a vessel. Oral arguments are expected this fall.

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