Local News
Court ruled Mullet Bay beach public and the land behind it Sun Resorts property in July 2026
On 7 July 2026 the Court of First Instance of Sint Maarten rejected Sun Resorts’ claim to own Mullet Bay beach, but ruled that the land behind the beach is the company’s and that the Land had leased it unlawfully.
By SXM Daily ·
Reported 7 July 2026.
The Court of First Instance of Sint Maarten ruled on 7 July 2026 that the beach at Mullet Bay is public and was never owned by Sun Resorts Limited N.V., but that the land behind the beach does belong to the company. The judgment in case SXM202500643 was published as ECLI:NL:OGEAM:2026:84.
The claim
According to the judgment, Sun Resorts, which owns the plot at Mullet Bay where a golf course now operates, asked the court to declare that it owned the beach. It argued that a predecessor had acquired the beach in a sale in 1852 and that ownership had passed down to the company. The Land Sint Maarten disputed this.
The beach
The court noted that Sint Maarten's beaches have been public under the Civil Code since 1869. It examined what "strand der zee" (the sea beach) meant in 1852 and found that the present beach could not have been transferred then, because it had always belonged to the public. The court rejected the claim to the beach.
The land behind it
The court ruled that Sun Resorts owns the plot behind the beach, up to the boundary with the sand, and that the Land acted unlawfully by leasing that land to third parties or letting them use it. It barred the Land from acting as owner of the plot, under a penalty of USD 1,000,000 per breach, and ordered it to inform its tenants in writing within 14 days of being served. Each side was ordered to bear its own legal costs, and the judgment was declared provisionally enforceable.
This was a first-instance judgment. For what it means for beach access, see our explainer, Mullet Bay Beach: what the July 2026 court ruling says.
Sources
- https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:OGEAM:2026:84
Source: https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:OGEAM:2026:84