Malibu Loses Ownership Fight for Escondido Falls Trails
A judge said the city relied on the wrong law, and waited decades too long.
Holly Bieler · September 5, 2026 · Malibu
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has thrown out Malibu's lawsuit seeking ownership of the trails leading to Escondido Falls, ruling the state law the city relied on doesn't apply to trails, and that the city waited decades too long to make its claim.
The ruling, issued this week by Judge Michael E. Whitaker, leaves the easements along Winding Way and Murphy Way in the hands of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, the agencies that have managed them for decades, [the Santa Monica Daily Press is reporting](https://www.smdp.com/malibu-loses-bid-to-claim-ownership-of-public-trails-city-weighs-appeal/).
As previously reported, Malibu filed the suit in April, arguing that a section of the state Streets and Highways Code automatically transferred the county's trail easements to the city when it incorporated in 1991, and that a 1998 deed handing them to the conservancy was therefore void. Whitaker found the law applies to roads, not recreational trails.
He was also unmoved by the city's claim that it had only recently discovered it owned the trails. Malibu worked with the two agencies on trail maintenance for decades, treating them as the owners, and didn't raise its ownership theory until 2024, the judge wrote, calling it a "creative legal argument" whose premise "strains credulity," according to the [Westside Current](https://www.westsidecurrent.com/malibu/malibu-cannot-take-ownership-of-escondido-canyon-trail-easements-judge-rules/article_3d8de22d-b86e-4554-ad15-8d16dbe0ffc1.html).
The lawsuit grew out of years of complaints about conditions at one of Malibu's most popular hikes. With no adequate parking, visitors park along PCH and cross the highway on foot, a practice the city said it warned the MRCA in writing was extremely dangerous as early as July 2024. In February, Joshua Farmer was struck and killed on PCH near Winding Way. The 257-page complaint also faulted the agency for failing to enforce sunset closures, and for overgrown brush that residents blamed for the Broad and Franklin fires in late 2024.
The agencies celebrated the decision. "This is a significant victory for the public trails of the Santa Monica Mountains," conservancy chairman Miguel A. Luna said in a statement. MRCA board chairman George Lange said the ruling "provides clarity about the ownership and management of these public trails."
The city said it was "disappointed with the ruling," and stressed it doesn't change the conditions on the ground. Hikers are still parking on PCH, closures still go unenforced, and trash and vegetation still go unmanaged, the city said in a statement Thursday.
"Those are the conditions that led the City Council to act, and the Court's ruling does not change them," the statement said.
The City Council will review the decision and decide whether to appeal in the coming weeks. Some court observers told [KBUU](https://malibu.fm/story/malibu-loses-trail-ownership-fight-to-mrca-weighs-appeal-20260904) the ruling rests on interpretations of state law that could be overturned by the Court of Appeal. In the meantime, the city says it remains willing to work with the MRCA on parking, trail safety, closure enforcement and vegetation management.
It's one of two lawsuits the city has pending against the conservancy agencies. A separate suit filed in February seeks damages from the Palisades Fire, alleging the MRCA failed to clear brush on its lots along PCH and Big Rock Dr.