County of Ventura v. Channel Islands Marina, Inc.

COFFEE, J., Dissenting.

I respectfully dissent.

The lynchpin of the majority’s reversal of the jury’s award of damages in this case is its mistaken position that Channel Islands Marina, Inc.’s (CIM) improvements had only salvage value at the end of the lease. On the contrary, as set forth frequently in the statement of decision of the trial judge, the land and waterside improvements had a “fair market value” to each party to the lease. Evidence of the existence of this value, among other things, can be found in the actions of the County of Ventura (County) in preventing CIM from removing the…