WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court seems torn on when the law should treat some floating homes as houseboats and when it should treat them as houses.
The question came up Monday as the court was trying to figure out whether Riviera Beach, Florida should have used maritime law to seize Fane Lozman's floating home.
Lozman said the gray, two-story floating structure was not a boat, so he should have had some of the same protection against seizure as a land-based house. But the city, and the lower courts, all said that since it had been towed several times to different marinas across hundreds of miles, it was a vessel like a houseboat.
A ruling, which will be watched closely by floating casinos, hotels and restaurants, will come later this year.
WBRC
Court seems unclear on house versus boat question
October 01, 2012
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court seems torn on when the law should treat some floating homes as houseboats and when it should treat them as houses.
The question came up Monday as the court was trying to figure out whether Riviera Beach, Florida should have used maritime law to seize Fane Lozman's floating home.
Lozman said the gray, two-story floating structure was not a boat, so he should have had some of the same protection against seizure as a land-based house. But the city, and the lower courts, all said that since it had been towed several times to different marinas across hundreds of miles, it was a vessel like a houseboat.
A ruling, which will be watched closely by floating casinos, hotels and restaurants, will come later this year.
WBRC
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The Fane Lozman Story
This is a true story of a persistent and tenacious underdog who fought against the governmental seizure of 2200 homes and businesses in 2006 only to see that same government arrest and destroy his floating home three years later, for an alleged failure to pay one month’s rent at the marina. Fane Lozman did not give up but continued the improbable climb from a county court eviction case to the US Supreme Court.
