Today, we filed the Reply Brief for the property owner in County of Hawaii v. Richards,No. 28882, the consolidated appeal from two eminent domain lawsuitsfiled by the County in 2000 and 2005. I won’t go into detail about the arguments and will let the brief speak for itself since I am part of thelegal team representing the appellant/property owner.
The issues in the case include:
- application of Haw. Rev. Stat. § 101-27(1993), the statute that provides that the government must make aproperty owner whole and pay damages when an attempt to take propertyby eminent domain is discontinued or dismissed
- whether the government may concurrently prosecute more than one condemnation lawsuit at the same time
- the standards for demonstrating that the government’s claim of public use is pretext to hide private benefit
The briefing is now complete. The appeal is before the Intermediate Court of Appeals of Hawaii, which will likely schedule oral argument. The filed briefs are here:
A link to the trial court’s findings, along with a summary of the case is posted here.