WASHINGTON — Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen built a Florida beachfront treehouse that would be the envy of any child. It has two levels, hammocks and windows looking out on the Gulf of Mexico.
But the hangout has cost the couple a handsome sum: about $30,000 to construct and probably five times that in legal fees as they’ve fought local authorities over it, Tran said. Now, they’re at their last stop, the Supreme Court. Unless the high court intervenes, the treehouse must be torn down.
The justices had their first opportunity to consider taking the case at a private conference Friday, and a decision on whether they will weigh in could come as early as Monday.
The couple’s lawyer, David Levin, acknowledges that the case is unlikely to be accepted by the justices, who hear arguments in only about 80 of the thousands of cases they’re asked to take each year. But he argues that his clients’ rights were violated when a Florida court “rubber stamped” a ruling proposed by the city of Holmes Beach without any evidence of independent consideration.
Tran and Hazen haven’t been willing to give up on the structure she calls their “getaway.”
“Part of me still believes there’s got to be justice out there, and we didn’t do anything wrong,” Tran said in a telephone interview.
Tran and her husband run a rental property called Angelinos Sea Lodge on Anna Maria Island on Florida’s west coast. They have a house on their property and four rental units.
Before they began constructing the treehouse around an Australian Pine on their property in 2011, Hazen asked the city whether they needed a permit. The answer: No.
So, with some help from the Internet, Tran dreamed up the structure, which took six months to build.
Soon, however, the city got an anonymous complaint about the treehouse. After an investigation, the city decided that the couple did need to go through the permitting process. And it turns out the treehouse was in an area where building is prohibited because of a city setback.
The couple hoped to get around that by having local voters weigh in, but courts told them no.