Take a look at the New Jersey Appellate Division’s opinion in Johnson v. City of East Orange, No. A-2586-23 (June 27, 2025). 

The court vacated the dismissal of a property owner’s takings claim, holding that it was timely. We aren’t going into too much detail because this one is out of our shop. As the opinion notes:

Pacific Legal Foundation, plaintiff’s counsel in the instant matter, represented the plaintiff in Tyler, and appeared as amicus curiae in both the appellate, 257-261 20th Avenue Realty, LLC v. Roberto (Roberto I), 477 N.J. Super. 339 (App. Div. 2023), and state Supreme Court, 257-261 20th Avenue Realty, LLC v. Roberto (Roberto II), 259 N.J. 417 (2025), proceedings in what became the first published authority applying the holding in Tyler in this state.”

Slip op. at 2.  

But here are some of the highlights:

  • A takings claim does not accrue, and therefore need not be brought, before the government has actually taken the property. In this case, that only occurred when the city foreclosed and failed to return to the owner the excess equity. Slip op. at 21. Remember owners: whatever you do, the government will claim you are either too early (not ripe), or too late (statute of limitations/laches). Or sometimes both. 
  • Claims of home equity theft takings (aka Tyler takings) are not collateral attacks on foreclosure judgments. Slip op. at 24. 
  • Once again, Chicken Little “oh no the sky’s gonna fall if you make us pay for taking property” arguments get little traction. Slip op. at 25-26 (“Further, the Tyler Court was clearly untroubled about opening a floodgate of older takings claims in Minnesota through its ruling. There is likewise no evidence presented by defendants that there are an abundance of such claims pending in New Jersey such that our application of Tyler here would “open[] the floodgates of class action litigation against every tax sale certificate holder . . . who foreclosed a tax lien in the past six years.”).

Recommended reading. Congratulations to our colleagues David Deerson, Christina Martin, and Jon Houghton for prevailing. 

Johnson v. City of East Orange, No. A-2586-23 (N.J. App. Div. June 27, 2025)