Happy Birthday to Hugo Grotius, author of the treatise “De Jure Belli et Pacis” (1625) — perhaps fittingly books about war and peace — which first used the phrase “eminent domain” to describe the sovereign power to forcibly acquire private property for public use and upon provision of compensation.
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Property Reserve Revisited: Project? We Don’t Need A Project To Do Precondemnation Entries
Remember the Property Reserve case in which the California Supreme Court came up with a …. creative solution to the conundrum of precondemnation entries? In the latest chapter of that fight, in Department of Water Resource Cases, No. C103207 (Mar. 26, 2026), the Third Appellate District rejected the owner’s claim that to enter property there must be a project.No, held the court, the whole point of precondemnation entries is to see whether a project involving your property might be worthwhile.
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William & Mary Law School’s Real Estate Law Society
Yesterday (yes, April Fool’s Day), we returned to William and Mary Law School to help the student-run Real Estate Law Society wrap up its event year. The putative title of our talk was “Hot Topics in Property Law”, but we covered a wider range, including Dirt Law issues to be on the lookout for at the Supreme Court, a century of zoning, career paths in property law (litigation, transactional, academic, for example, and what the hiring market looks like), and some general musings.
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Romaine Tenney Lives: “They Stole His Land and Gave Him No Choice!”
When you think of “Vermont roads,” the first images that might come to mind are mountain byways, covered bridges, and “highways” that elsewhere might qualify as backroads. All the above is prelude, because it is here along I-95 south of White River Junction, that today’s story lay. Romaine Tenney was one of those classic Vermonters. He entered the pages of history more than fifty years ago when, in reaction to the taking of his farm for Interstate 91, he burned his house and farm buildings down, and shot himself. He had nowhere else to go.
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Vermont And The Bare Necessities: Taking Was Unnecessary Because Town Didn’t Bother To Meet Statutory Requirements
We’ve been holding on to this eminent domain necessity decision from the Vermont Supreme Court because we were scheduled to pay a visit to the Green Mountain State (more on that in a subsequent post), and we wanted to include some photos (photos are always good in an otherwise dry law blog post). Mongeon Bay Properties, LLC v. Town of Colchester, No. 25-AP-125 (Jan. 23, 2026), is an eminent domain case where the Town tried to condemn the property (shown above) which is part of a larger unsubdivided parcel owned by Mongeon on the shore of Malletts Bay (part of Lake Champlain). The court invalidated the taking, holding that the Town failed to prove the statutory elements of necessity.
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Latest inversecondemnation.com Swag
We’ve done vests and hats, and even the old reliable mug. And now we’re trying out lightweight fleecy jackets. That’s right folks: a limited, experimental, prototype piece of merch as depicted above, and below.
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Post-Kelo Amendments To Louisiana Constitution Prohibit Taking To Lease To Private Company For Its Own Use (Even If The Fifth Amendment Might Allow It)
In Plaquemines Port Harbor & Terminal District v. Nguyen, No 2025-C-00827 (Mar. 6, 2026), the Louisiana Supreme Court invalidated a quick take by the Port of a vacant 29-acre parcel, because the property was to be leased to “a private company for its exclusive development and use.” Slip op. at 1. [Disclosure: our shop filed an amicus brief, so we had a dog in the hunt.]
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Today’s Dirt Law Round-Up: Zoning, Public Use, and Penn Central History
Here’s what’s on our radar screen today: Anthony Flint, How Zoning Won (Bloomberg) (“In 1926, the Supreme Court’s Euclid decision enshrined zoning in US cities. On its 100th anniversary, academics gathered to reflect on the landmark ruling’s mixed legacy.”)
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Register Now For State Eminent Domain Conferences (California, Texas, Virginia)
Here are a three upcoming state-based eminent domain conferences, brought to you by CLE International: California, Texas, and Virginia.
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2026 Future of Property Law Conference, University of Hawaii Law School, Feb 13, 2026 (Live & Webcast)
If you are still looking for a reason to head to the 808 next month, here it is. The 2026 Future of Property Law Conference, February 13, 2026 at the University of Hawaii School of Law.
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