Who owns this raw and undeveloped man-made 39-acre island just off Key West called Wisteria Island?

The federal government does, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled, and not a local developer.

Judge Jose Martinez granted the U.S. government summary judgment in a 2011 lawsuit brought by developer Roger Bernstein who lay claim that the island belonged to his corporation, F.E.B.

The government’s interest in the case, however, only arose after two Key West journalists, Naja and Arnaud Girard, dove into the history of Wisteria Island after seeing Bernstein’s plans to develop it.

“My husband and I had a lot to do with it,” Naja Girard said. “All the research convinced the government.” Wisteria Island ruling, July 31, 2020. by Gwen Filosa on Scribd

In 2011, the Girards, who own a Key West marine assistance and boat salvage company, made three trips to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and pored through records.

“It was sort of a passion,” Naja Girard said. “We asked for what you have about the Navy and the Key West area and they brought out all these boxes. We sat there for days.”

They hit the jackpot: documents that suggested the Bernsteins could not own the island because the Navy had not given up title to Wisteria until 1982. And when it did, it transferred it to the U.S. Department of the Interior, not the state of Florida.

By the time the couple had compiled their evidence that Wisteria belonged to the government, they had persuaded the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to write to them in November 2011 that, because Wisteria was built by the Navy, it was public land.

The lead attorney for F.E.B. did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. The corporation could still appeal Martinez’s decision.

The Bernstein family in 2012 said they were stunned the feds disregarded the warranty deed their late father, Ben, obtained for $155,000 in 1967, the four decades worth of property taxes they’ve paid, and the Submerged Lands Act of 1953, which they believe confirms their ownership.

“This is a land grab by the federal government of epic proportions,” Roger Bernstein told the Miami Herald in 2012.

Wisteria sits across from another island, the ultra-developed luxury community of Sunset Key.

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Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article244742042.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article244742042.html#storylink=cpy