Beachfront boundaries shift with the tides.
When Robert Riley bought beachfront property in the 1940s, he knew his land stretched from where he stood “north to the Nehalem River.” For nearly 60 years, no one believed him — including the paper companies that tried to claim the properties for their own use. Fourteen days of trial included multiple expert witnesses whose testimony covered more than 150 years of deeds, surveys and significant geological events. In the end, lawyers Steve Crew and Matthew Lowe convinced the court that Mr. Riley, who had spent a lifetime fighting for what he knew was his, was the rightful owner of the land under the law of accretion.