Vinod Khosla Hosts Fundraiser for Biden as His Battle Over Beach on Private Property in California Continues
- A judge at the San Mateo County Superior Court issued a tentative ruling on May 10 denying the Sun Microsystems co-founder’s request to throw out a lawsuit brought by a state agency in 2020.
Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla’s 16-year-old battle over access to Martins Beach via his private property faced a new hurdle. A judge at the San Mateo County Superior Court in California issued a tentative ruling on May 10 denying the Indian American’s request to throw out a lawsuit brought by a state agency, Bloomberg reported. Superior Court Judge Raymond Swope said” State officials had provided enough support for their claim of public access to move forward with the case they filed in 2020,” SFGate reported.
The Sun Microsystems co-founder was sued by the California State Lands Commission and California Coastal Commission “for restricting the use of a beach used by the public for generations,” SFGate reported. The State Lands Commission sought a court order “barring Khosla from blocking the road to the beach on the grounds that the public has acquired access rights to the land based on historical use and California law,” the report added.
It all began in 2008 when Khosla bought an 89-acre beachfront property in San Mateo County for $32.5 million. It included Martins Beach Road, long used to access the beach. He erected a gate on the road leading down to the crescent-shaped cove. Since then, multiple lawsuits have been filed to force Khosla to share the road once more. Meanwhile, his lawyers “contend he had the right to do so as the property owner unless he was offered proper compensation,” according to the SFGate report.
In 2018, a decade after Khosla bought the property, the U.S. Supreme Court declined his appeal, but the next year, a San Francisco district appeals court ruled in favor of Khosla.
SFGate notes that “the fight centers around public dedication,” as “supporters of keeping it open have argued because previous owners allowed beachgoers to use the single road down to Martins Beach, that constituted public dedication of the road. The San Francisco appeals court ruled that because prior owners charged a parking fee to use the beach, there was no such public dedication.”
The same day, May 10, Khosla hosted a fundraiser for President Biden at his home in Silicon Valley. The cost of tickets “ranged between $6,600 and $100,000,” for the event which “raised more than $1.5 million,” according to reports in Indian media. This was the first fundraiser hosted by an Indian American in the 2024 election cycle.
He also took to X a day after the event in support of Biden. “The question I keep asking myself is would his supporters want their own kids to be like @realDonaldTrump and have #Trumpvalues,” he posted.