Mark your calendars for next Friday, January 25, 2013 from noon to 1:00 p.m. Pacific for "Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States: Practical Implications Of The Supreme Court's Decision," presented by Law Seminars International.
It's a discussion of Arkansas Game, the decision in which the Supreme Court held that the federal government was not immune from liability for a taking when it was responsible for flooding, even if the flooding is temporary. They've assembled a great faculty, which includes arguing counsel for the prevailing petitioner James Goodhart. Also speaking will be takings litigator Nancie Marzulla and Washington Legal Foundation Chief Counsel Richard Samp. Here's a description of the one-hour program:
On December 4, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States, holding that when the federal government floods property, even temporarily, the Fifth Amendment may require the government to pay just compensation to the landowner.The Court's decision eliminates a carve-out from takings liability for government actions resulting in episodic or temporary flooding of land: "No decision of [the Supreme Court] authorizes a blanket temporary-flooding exception" to takings jurisprudence. This means that landowners are now eligible to establish that their land has been inversely condemned by government actions resulting in temporary flooding, under the same standards as any other takings plaintiff.
Consequently, water management actions that could result in flooding should be carefully scrutinized to take preventative steps to avoid flooding and reduce potential takings liability. Likewise, attorneys whose clients experience episodic or periodic flooding of their land should carefully evaluate whether a takings claim is a possibility.
In this one-hour TeleBriefing, three experienced litigators -- including the attorney who argued in the Supreme Court for the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission -- will discuss how this case changes the rules for inverse condemnations involving flooding.
More information, including registration here. With a relatively modest registration fee, this is a great deal to hear the thoughts of some very high-level thinkers in our area of law.
