Here's the final cert stage brief (Petitioner's Reply) in River Center LLC v. Dormitory Auth. of the State of New York, No. 11-922 (cert. petition filed Jan. 23, 2012), the case in which a Manhattan property owner and developer is challenging the compensation awarded by New York courts for a taking near Lincoln Center. This brief responds to the Dormitory Authority's Brief in Opposition (posted here).
The Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause will be eviscerated if the government is able to water down the Just Compensation guarantee to the point of meaninglessness. Property rights require vigilant enforcement of both the Takings and Just Compensation Clauses, and the instant petition provides a perfect vehicle for the reinvigoration of the latter.
Br. at 2. We filed an amicus brief supporting the property owner on behalf of Owners' Counsel of America, posted here.
New York's Appellate Division denied the property owner the right to present and have considered evidence about the valuation of the property because the court held that in order to be admissible, the property owner must be able to show the use it claims is the highest and best use is "established as reasonably probable and not a 'speculative or hypothetical arrangement in the mind of the claimant,'" and that these plans will "come to fruition" in the near future.
The property owner, represented in the Supreme Court by Harvard lawprof Laurence Tribe, argues in its cert petition that the Fifth Amendment does not require a property owner show that the development plans will come to fruition soon. Here are the other two amicus briefs supporting the petitioner:
The cert petition is posted here. The Court's docket entry is here.
Reply Brief of Petitioner, River Center LLC v. Dormitory Authority of New York, No. 11-922 (filed Apr. 4, 2...