2017

Apparently, property owners setting their buildings on fire to collect the insurance is a thing in Pennsylvania, the location of our story. We say this because the Pennsylvania legislature adopted a statute which requires that before an insurance company pays out proceeds from a fire policy to a “named insured,” it check with the local…

The Supreme Court yesterday issued an opinion in an expropriation case we’ve been following.

No, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela v. Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Co., No. 15-423 (May 1, 2017), isn’t about redevelopment, or public use and the like, but about the nationalization by Venezuela of oil exploration equipment. The owner…

Do you really need an excuse to visit Seattle? If you do, and want to earn some CLE credit while you’re at it, check it out the brochure for the upcoming Eminent Domain seminar on May 18, 2017. This is a one-day program that focuses on the hot topics in our area of law. We’ll …

We don’t usually post trial court decisions. They are, obviously, subject to change by an appellate court, and because many are interlocutory, alteration by the rendering court iself.

But for this order from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, we’ll make an exception. It’s a land use case (it’s right there…

Remember back from Admin Law the notion of a “quasi-judicial” proceeding? That term always has bugged us, because, you know, it was used when an agency was sorta acting like a court (but also was sorta acting like a legislative body). Half full, half empty, take your pick. 

The fact pattern presented in the Florida…

Here’s the cert petition, recently filed, which asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision of the North Carolina appellate courts. We say “appellate courts,” because the decision being reviewed is one from the N.C. Court of Appeals, because the N.C. Supreme Court, after granting discretionary review, punted and dismissed the appeal after…

Here are the full set of petitioner-side amici briefs in 616 Croft Ave., LLC v. City of West Hollywood, No. 16-1137, the case which asks the Supreme Court to determine whether the Nollan-Dolan-Koontz exactions standards apply to conditions on development imposed by a legislature. 

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Here’s one for all you appellate lawyers and appellate wannabees looking for more experience: the Hawaii Supreme Court last week entered an order making the experimental Pro Bono Appellate Project permanent, “in light of the project’s accomplishments since its inception.” 

This is a good thing, and the Project helps by matching “financially deserving pro…

Not a lot in Jabary v. McCollough, No. 15-40009 (Apr. 19, 2017) to grab onto, so we’re not really surprised that the Fifth Circuit didn’t publish. But because the case involves Williamson County takings ripeness and is in our wheelhouse, we’re posting it nonetheless.

The first two sentences, “City building inspector Bret McCullough shut…

Here’s the amicus brief filed yesterday by the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, joined by Owners’ Counsel of America, in a case we’ve been following.

This case asks the Court to resolve a big outstanding issue: are legislatively-imposed exactions (however that term is defined) subject to the same…