The New York Appellate Division’s opinion in Huntley Power, LLC v. Town of Tonawanda, No. 22-011460 (June 9, 2023), is typically short (6 pages, including a dissent).
The town instituted eminent domain proceedings to take Huntley’s riverfront property, including an electric plant decommissioned in 2016, and water intake structures. The asserted public use is
Here’s the latest in an issue we’ve been following.
Let’s say the government thinks you have committed a crime (or someone else has). To investigate, it seizes property as evidence or potential evidence. But after things wrap up and it no longer needs the property as evidence, the government doesn’t return it to its owner.
In this Order the Indiana Supreme Court declines to take up the question of when property is taken by regulation. We post it here to note the statement of Justice Slaughter, who agreed that this case isn’t the right vehicle to examine whether Indiana law should adopt a takings test different than the federal
We’re not going to dwell all that much on the California Court of Appeal’s recent opinion in Discovery Builders, Inc. v. City of Oakland, No. A164315 (June 22, 2023), mostly because it seems entirely predictable.
The developer thought it had an agreement with the city to pay certain fees (dare we say “exactions”) the
One from the Louisiana Court of Appeal, 3000-3022 St. Claude Avenue, LLC v. City of New Orleans, No. 2022-CA-0813 (June 22, 2023) demonstrating that the standard of judicial review for zoning matters (rational basis) is pretty powerful.
The owner wanted to develop its New Orleans property, but first needed a zoning amendment from residential
In Sterling Hotels,LLC v. McKay, No. 22-1345 (June 22, 2023) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit considered whether a hotel could sue a state elevator inspector who barred the hotel from operating its elevators for reasons the state’s Elevator Safety Board had not approved. As a result, the hotel couldn’t rent
Ever thought to yourself when reading a Supreme Court property rights cert petition or opinion (or three), “I wish I could do that“?
That was me a couple of years ago.
And I found out. I joined the nation’s premiere property rights courtroom lawyers and advocates, Pacific Legal Foundation.
Thanks to lawprof Josh Blackman for the reminder that our un-favorite case, Penn Central Transp. Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104 (1978), turned 44 today.
If you know, you know.
Time has not treated the opinion well. Practitioners, judges, and legal scholars across the spectrum have called the three-factor Penn Central test
Before you get too excited by the headline and think this is a Kelo issue, a word of caution: this short one from the Oklahoma Supreme Court is on a really niche topic: private condemnations that permit the private owner of property to institute a private-benefit taking to force a neighbor to sell an interest
At first, the Iowa Supreme Court’s opinion in Juckette v. Iowa Utilities Board, No. 21-1788 (June 16, 2023) looks like a promising read. The issue — is a utility expanding its use of an express road easement to install electric lines a taking? — is one that we’ve been following.
But by the