Water rights | Public trust

Yesterday, the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals issued an opinion in In re Trustees Under the Will of the Estate of James Campbell, No. 30006 (June 13, 2013), a fascinating case involving the nature of Torrens title. In doing so, the court rebuffed the State of Hawaii’s attempted land grab, which would have undermined…

Here’s the Reply Brief, filed by the petitioner/property owner in Estate of Hage v. United States, No. 12-918 (cert. petition filed Jan. 17, 2013).

That’s the case in which the Federal Circuit held that a 22-year old takings case was not ripe because even though the agency denied Hage’s every application for a grazing…

Congratulations: if you understood that headline (much less are eager to read this post), you are officially a takings geek.

As we noted earlier, after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Arkansas Game and Fish Comm’n v. United States, No. 11-597 (Dec. 4, 2012), the Court of Federal Claimsin Big Oak Farms…

Hat tip to ABA State and Local Government Law colleague (and fellow U.H. Law School alum) Julie Tappendorf for the lead on a newly-published article: John M. Baker and Katherine M. Swenson, Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District: Trudging Through a Florida Wetland with Nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices, in the latest…

What we’re reading today:

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Here are the latest (and last, presumably) briefs in the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States case, now in the Federal Circuit after remand by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court earlier reversed the Federal Circuit’s conclusion that government-induced flooding could not be a taking unless it was “permanent,” and remanded the case…

Here’s the BIO recently filed by the United States in Estate of Hage v. United States, No. 12-918 (cert. petition filed Jan. 17, 2013). This brief responds to the cert petition which seeks Supreme Court review of Estate of Hage v. United States, 687 F.3d 1281 (Fed. Cir. 2012).

In that case…

Here’s the video of today’s Ninth Circuit oral arguments in Drake’s Bay Oyster Co. v. Jewell, the case about an oyster farm in Marin County’s Point Reyes National Seashore, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision to not renew its license. The Ninth Circuit has posted the briefs of the parties and amici here…

Here’s one that’s coming up for the Supreme Court’s consideration at its conference next week, but which we haven’t noted until now. A Texas property owner has filed this cert petition asking the Court to review the Texas Supreme Court’s decision in Hearts Bluff Game Ranch, Inc. v. State of Texas, 381 S.W.3d 486…

In “Why big development is so difficult in Hawaii,” Hawaii Business magazine tackles an issue first raised by U. Hawaii lawprof David Callies in recently-published law review article (and follow-up interview), where he labeled the record of the 1993-2010 Hawaii Supreme Court on property issues “appalling” (80% overall success rate for environmental…