2018

Come on, let’s be candid here. When we pick up an opinion filled with statutory and regulatory jargon — replete with agency acronyms — our eyes see the words, but our brains process them like they are being spoken by the adults in the Peanuts cartoons.

But then we spot the words “eminent domain”

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You’ve known for a while that Palm Springs, California, specifically the Renaissance Palm Springs Hotel (a resort facility, but right in town, so you will have many options for “off campus” activities like art museums, the aerial tram, golf, and whatever suits your fancy, and close-in to the Palm Springs Airport), is the venue

A quick one today because we’re offline (more on that later). Pacific Legal Foundation (the folks who are representing the property owner in the pending case challenging the continuing viability of the Williamson County ripeness doctrine), has posted this entry on their blog, “This monkey got his day in court. Property owners still

According to this story (“California moves closer to taking public pathway from billionaire Vinod Khosla“) in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the State of California is considering exercising eminent domain to take an easement for public access over his San Mateo County property to access Martins Beach. 

This is the case that resulted

Here’s a short but interesting one from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. It isn’t exactly about the usual topics we cover, but is interesting enough that we thought we would post it. 

The case involves old deeds (dated between 1922 and 1957) in the Adams County, Ohio recorder’s office, which contain

Kearney had her property taken. The school district doing the taking said it wanted to put a septic system on the property, and so commissioned a percolation study. But then it decided that instead, it would connect to a sewer system. The state court jury believed neither side’s appraiser completely, rejecting both Kearney’s appraisal ($1.4

There’s a lot to digest in the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Fowler v. Guerin, No. 16-35052 (Aug. 16, 2018). (We’ve been following the case, but the court’s issuance of the opinion slipped by — our thanks to a colleague for pointing it out).

The plaintiffs filed a class action alleging that state officials failed

Back in April, we posted the Florida District Court of Appeal’s opinion in a case where landowners sued the state fish and wildlife commission because “deer dog hunters and their dogs” who had hunting licenses trespassed on the plaintiffs’ lands. The court, over a single judge dissent, affirmed the dismissal of the takings claims, because