State keeps trying to control South MS casino leases. Judges aren’t buying it
Mississippi’s secretary of state has lost another lawsuit over control of waterfront property in Biloxi.
Chancery Judge Jim Persons ruled Thursday that Grand Casino Biloxi owns outright a piece of waterfront property south of U.S. 90 on the west side of Oak Street.
Secretary of State Michael Watson — and predecessors — claimed the state of Mississippi owned the property as part of the tidelands law applied to waterfront property subject to the ebb and flow of the tide.
The issue is a big one for the city, county and state. State ownership would require a developer to lease the land from Watson’s office, generating revenue for the state but driving up the cost of development. Most casinos have signed tidelands leases with the secretary of state.
But Persons followed an April 2024 ruling from the state Supreme Court finding that the state never owned 511.34 acres of waterfront land in East Biloxi, which includes the Grand’s small, vacant parcel.
Instead, the acreage was transferred through the 1784 Spanish Land Grant to a private property owner. The acreage was never owned by the state and was not included in land Mississippi was granted when it was admitted to the union in 1817, the Supreme Court found.
Are state lawsuits wasting taxpayer money?
The state Supreme Court’s ruling came in the Aldrich case, originally filed back in 1998 by now defunct Lady Luck Casino and the Aldrich family, which owned the property where Lady Luck was located.
The Aldrich property sits on the west side of Grand Biloxi’s parcel. Persons also presided over the Aldrich case.
In the Grand Biloxi case, Persons wrote: “As previously noted, the Supreme Court affirmed this court’s judgment in Aldrich and specifically held that the land grant was ‘clearly’ valid and transferred the property to a private owner.”
The city of Biloxi and Harrison County joined the Aldriches and Grand Biloxi in their winning lawsuits. The Grand Biloxi case becomes the fifth tidelands case that the secretary of state has lost in recent years. Harrison County attorney Tim Holleman said Watson should have settled the Grand Biloxi case once Aldrich was decided.
“It concerns me that the secretary of state continues to litigate cases and spend taxpayer money on cases where the court has already ruled,” Holleman said.
Watson’s office has not responded to a Sun Herald email requesting comment on the most recent ruling and continuing litigation.
Other cases filed against casino companies
Watson is also embroiled in two other lawsuits against developers who want to build casinos on the north side of U.S. 90 in East Biloxi. He claims these casinos also need leases with his office.
One of the casinos is proposed for property where the old Tivoli Hotel was located, while the other would be on the former site of historic Tullis-Toledano Manor. Hurricane Katrina destroyed both the Tivoli and Tullis-Toledano in 2005.
The hurricane also destroyed casinos that state law then required to be located on the water. Changes to the law after the hurricane allow casinos onshore, but they must own or lease the adjacent waterfront.
In two other cases, the courts ruled that cities and counties have authority to develop and lease waterfront property without state tidelands leases.
