Florida Statutes
Fla. Stat. § 177.28 (2025)
Legal significance of the mean high-water line.
✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
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177.28 Legal significance of the mean high-water line.—
(1) Mean high-water line along the shores of land immediately bordering on navigable waters is recognized and declared to be the boundary between the foreshore owned by the state in its sovereign capacity and upland subject to private ownership. However, no provision of this part shall be deemed to constitute a waiver of state ownership of sovereignty submerged lands, nor shall any provision of this part be deemed to impair the title to privately owned submerged lands validly alienated by the State of Florida or its legal predecessors.
(2) No provision of this part shall be deemed to modify the common law of this state with respect to the legal effects of accretion, reliction, erosion, or avulsion.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3
cases, 1984–2007 · leading case: Trepanier v. Cnty. of Volusia, 965 So. 2d 276 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007).
Trepanier v. Cnty. of Volusia, 965 So. 2d 276 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007). “Under that provision, title to the portion of the beach below the mean high water line is held by the state in trust for all the people. The "beach," however, includes more land than what is set aside for the people under the public trust doctrine.”
City of Daytona Beach Shores v. Ward, 6 Fla. Supp. 2d 109 (Fla. Volusia Cty. Ct. 1984). “F.S. 177.28; Broward v. Mabry, 50 So. 826 (1909).”
Millender & Son Fish Co. v. Dep't of Nat. Resources, 38 Fla. Supp. 2d 203 (Fla. Div. Admin. Hr'g 1988). “Pursuant to Section 177.28, Florida Statutes, the legislature has declared the boundary of sovereign ownership of navigable waters to be the line of mean high water.”
— 177.28(1) — 1 case
Trepanier v. Cnty. of Volusia, 965 So. 2d 276 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007). “Under that provision, title to the portion of the beach below the mean high water line is held by the state in trust for all the people. The "beach," however, includes more land than what is set aside for the people under the public trust doctrine.”
— 177.28(2) — 1 case
Trepanier v. Cnty. of Volusia, 965 So. 2d 276 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007). “Under that provision, title to the portion of the beach below the mean high water line is held by the state in trust for all the people. The "beach," however, includes more land than what is set aside for the people under the public trust doctrine.”
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