By any measure, a private beach nestled within your 89-acre property, tucked into the coastline outside of San Francisco, is an asset worth fighting for. It is why you negotiate asking prices, endure bidding wars, with towns for permits and with architects over plans that best express the vibe of the place. The fight over the cove owned by prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, however, isn't just another champagne problem: it's the basis of a major lawsuit, and one that will now play out in court.

The dispute is over access to a private road to Martin’s Beach, a charm of a cove treasured by surfers and sea lions for decades. Khosla bought the property for $32.5 million, in 2008, from owners who, for decades, let the public use the road to the beach for a small parking fee. For the first two years Khosla owned the property, he kept a similar arrangement, charging beachgoers $10 a day. By 2010, he put up “no trespassing” signs, hired guards, and locked the gates to keep patrons off the road.

A group of individuals who had enjoyed the beach for decades, who call themselves Friends of Martins Beach, responded by suing Khosla, who, they argue, must reopen the road based on public coastal access laws. Last week, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled that the group’s claims have enough merit that the lawsuit can proceed to trial, according to filings obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this year, lawyers for Khosla sent a letter to the California State Lands Commission offering the state the chance to reopen the road for $30 million—nearly what he paid for the entire property.

The court did throw him one minor victory, rejecting the Friends of Martins Beach claim that there’s a provision in California law that guarantees the public a right of way to coastal waters.

Quick to billboard the small win, his lawyers told the Journal that they “view this decision as a win for our client and all coastal property owners.”

But the surf crew isn’t letting him have it. “There are at least 500 people who have used the beach and can testify to its public dedication,” the Friends of Martins Beach attorney told the newspaper.

So hundreds of people claim Khosla spoiled their ocean oasis, but what about Khosla? How dreadful it must be for him to have his $32.5 million perfectly positioned vacation home soured by 500 aging surfers who want a piece of what he paid a pretty penny for. Where is the justice in that?