The Supreme Court will not be reviewing the case in which a Manhattan property owner and developer was challenging the compensation awarded by New York courts for a taking near Lincoln Center. River Center LLC v. Dormitory Auth. of the State of New York, No. 11-922 (cert. petition filed Jan. 23, 2012).
New York’s Appellate Division denied the property owner the right to present and have considered evidence about the valuation of the property because in order to be admissible, the property owner must be able to show the use it claims is the highest and best use is “established as reasonably probable and not a ‘speculative or hypothetical arrangement in the mind of the claimant,'” and that these plans will “come to fruition” in the near future. The property owner, represented in the Supreme Court by Harvard lawprof Laurence Tribe, argued in its cert petition that the Fifth Amendment does not require a property owner show that the development plans will come to fruition soon.
We filed an amicus brief supporting the property owner on behalf of Owners’ Counsel of America, posted here.
Here’s the Court’s order denying cert if you are interested.