You know those times you go to the store and try to get a refund on something you’ve purchased, and instead of cash back, you get a gift card, only useable at the same store? Or when, instead of refunding your plane ticket, the airline gives you some limited-time credit for a future flight?
Vested rights
Your 2020 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference Bingo Card
No Shortage Of Amicus Support For Takings Cert Petition (Lucas and Penn Central!)
A short while ago, we featured the cert petition in a case from the Big Island that we’ve been following as various pieces of it went up and down through both the state and federal court systems. See “New (Mike Berger) Cert Petition: ‘This case is the proverbial ‘Exhibit A’ of much that is …
Mass App: “Grandfathering” Is Term We’re Not Going To Use Because “it has racist origins”
Nothing much to see in the Massachusetts Court of Appeals’ opinion in Comstock v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Gloucester, No. 19-P-1163 (Aug. 3, 2020), a somewhat typical zoning dispute.
Neighbor vs neighbor, over whether permits issued by a municipality (and approved by the ZBA) to renovate and replace an existing — but dilapidated…
New Stinky Cert Petition: By Wiping Out Nuisance Claims, Right-To-Farm Act Is A Taking
Here’s a cert petition that we’ve been waiting to drop in a case we’ve been following. This one asks whether a state legislature’s virtual elimination of a cause of action is a taking.
The harsh reality is that farms and ranches can stink. But in Right to Farm Acts, many state legislatures, Indiana’s…
Michigan: Gov’t Keeping The Change From Tax Delinquency Sale Is A Taking
Our Louisiana friends have a great word — lagniappe — that we’re not sure we understand precisely, but to us has always meant that little something extra. As Mark Twain wrote, “[i]t is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a ‘baker’s dozen.’ It is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure.” As far as…
Fed Ct: Property Owners Not Irreparably Harmed By COVID Rent Orders (Because They Might Be Able To Get Compensation Later)
Check this out. In Willowbrook Apts, LLC v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, No. 1:20-cv-01818 (July 6, 2020), the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland denied the plaintiff/property owner’s motion for a temporary restraining order, in a case challenging the COVID orders that pretty dramatically alter the landlord/tenant relationship in Maryland:…
HAWSCT: City’s Prohibiting Use Of Property Pending City Acquisition Is Land Banking Taking
Breaking! In H.C. Cornuelle, Inc. v. City and Cnty of Honolulu, No. 14068 (Haw. July 17, 1990), the Hawaii Supreme Court held that the City and County of Honolulu inversely condemned a strip of private property in downtown when it prohibited development and use of that land because the City intended to acquire it…
Cal App Backs Into The Question: Riparian Rights Are Limited To Reasonable Use, So No Property Right In What Agency Deems Unreasonable Use
A long opinion, but a short post. In Stanford Vina Ranch Irrigation Co. v. California, No. C085762 (June 18, 2020), the California Court of Appeal held that water rights are not really property rights.
That’s a bit of an overstatement, of course. But not a huge one.
In an inverse condemnation case, the court…
Podcast: COVID-19 & Property Rights: Do Government Actions in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic Create Compensable Takings?”
Here’s the recording of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law & Property Rights Practice Group teleforum we did a couple of weeks ago, “COVID-19 & Property Rights: Do Government Actions in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic Create Compensable Takings?” Stream above, or download it here.…



