July 2009

In Cloverleaf Realty of New York, Inc. v. Town of Wawayanda, No. 07-3405-cv (July 15, 2009), the Second Circuit held that a dismissal by a state court on statute of limitations ground does not preclude the plaintiff from bringing the same claim in a federal court which has a longer statute of limitations.

Needing

When considering a redevelopment authority’s condemnation of what is assumed by all litigants to be a valuable leasehold interest, how does a court determine the lessee is owed nothing, and conclude that nothing is “just” compensation (and indeed, the lessee must pay back the compensation it was previously paid, plus interest)?

Eminent domain mavens already

Mr. Thomas, along with his colleagues in Damon Key’s Land Use Group, is one of the preeminent land use lawyers in Hawaii.

He focuses on issues involving appeals, regulatory takings, eminent domain, water rights, land use (zoning and planning), shoreline issues, navigational servitudes, and voting rights.

He has tried cases and appeals in

In a notable case worth following, the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals is considering a new appeal involving whether a per se regulatory takings claim is ripe under Williamson County Regional Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, 473 U.S. 172 (1985), and whether in order to ripen a takings claim, a property

Would that John Adams could rise from his grave tospeak for the VFW, and for property rights in twenty-firstcentury America. I believe he would observe that, if the VFW’sproperty can be taken without compensation, no property issecure.”

So says the dissenting Justice in City of Milwaukee Post No. 2874 Veterans of Foreign Wars

We’ve been loosely following the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotamayor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and reading selected testimony and commentary on the subject. We say “loosely” since confirmation hearings are more political theater and an opportunity for each side to educate the public about its

What do you call an appeal in which the Supreme Court doesn’t address any of your five questions presented?

If you are the petitioner’s attorneys in Save Diamond Head Waters LLC v. Hans Hedemann Surf, Inc., No. 27804 (July 13, 2009), you’d call it “victory.”

In that case — which was

Little-pink-houseThe National Constitution Center regularly posts “We The People Stories,” podcasts of “nationally recognized leaders debating and discussing the Constitution.”

The latest is about Kelo and eminent domain, and is well worth a listen.

Here’s the summary:

A conversation about Kelo v. City of New London four years after the Supreme Court’s highly controversial 5-4