A few months ago, we commented on the proposed “environmental court,” a bill working its way through the Hawaii legislature. We called it a bad idea, and hoped the Lawgivers would see the light and let this idea fade away.
It looks like we were unjustifiably optimistic, and both houses have now passed the bill…
We’re straying outside the usual subjects of this blog (but not that far, since we also do a lot of work related to municipal governments and constitutional law).
Our “home” in the American Bar Association is the Section of State & Local Government Law (we’re Chair of the Section’s Eminent Domain Law group), has put…
As a cost-saving measure, Austin, Texas’s utility department had a “wait until it breaks” power line inspection policy, and one day, the lines broke.
Unfortunately, the broken power lines caused the Steiner Ranch wildfire which destroyed 23 homes. Insurance companies and uninsured homeowners sued the city, alleging tort and inverse condemnation claims. Sound familiar?
When…
Both a jury and the Court of Appeals concluded that the City of Milwaukie, Oregon, was liable in inverse condemnation for $58k because when it cleaned out the city’s sewer lines, it cause you-know-what to back up into Ms. Dunn’s house. The City asserted that it wasn’t liable — it didn’t mean to cause…
Mark your calendars for next week Thursday, May 22, 2014. ALI-CLE, the good folks who put on our annual Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation and Eminent Domain 101 conferences, are sponsoring the above-titled teleconference/webinar. Here’s the program description:
The City of Richmond, California rattled the universe of real estate lenders, trustees, owners, bankers…
Update: PLF’s Dave Breemer on the decision “In a New Victory, Court Blasts Rules Barring Court Access for Property Owners,” while Gideon Kanner adds his thoughts in “Be Still, My Heart! Second Circuit Rules for a Property Owner In a Stinging Inverse Condemnation Opinion.”
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Check this out, just received: In…
Here’s an article worth reading, co-authored by our colleague Edward Thomas (no relation, although we often kid that Ed is our brother-in-the-law), President of the Natural Hazard Mitigation Association, and a fellow who is concerned both with anticipating natural hazards such as sea level rise, hurricanes, and the like, as well as property rights. …
The case that seemingly wouldn’t end — Coy Koontz, Jr.’s continuation of his late father’s case against the St. Johns River Water Management District over the WMD’s demand that they “pay to play” — has ended with its eighth appellate decision (including the now-famous visit to the U.S. Supreme Court), with another win for…
[Note: we were all set to be the “firstest with the mostest” on these issues, but, as is often the case, Professor Kanner beat us to the punch (“The Clippers and Eminent Domain – It Was Only a Matter of Time“).]
What we’re talking about, of course, is the recent (and ongoing)…
Here’s what we’re reading today:
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