So how does a property lawyer salve the wounds of the last few days, which saw a really bad Supreme Court ruling in a regulatory takings case, and shortly thereafter the justices deny review of your just compensation petition while you just happen to be in Los Angeles, California?
Langer's Deli, that's how.
First, some background.
Many years ago, when my mother was still alive, she resided in Honolulu at an assisted living place. Very nice it was, and it allowed her to remain independent much longer than she might otherwise have been able to alone, and in my estimation probably added 10 years to her life. One of her fellow apartment owners was Robert Corn, a lawyer who had retired from his long career as a senior deputy District Attorney in (and for) the County of Los Angeles.
When he learned I too was a lawyer, we'd share war stories over coffee or lunch in the dining room of the facility although his stories naturally were much better. He had served as one of the chief prosecutors of the Manson family and on many other well-known cases, and he didn't mind sharing these fascinating tales.
He reminisced he missed those days and the back-and-forth of trials (he said when today's lawyers told him they were "litigators," he didn't know what that meant - he was a trial lawyer, and he did trials, not "litigation"). He had some great stories.
But what he waxed most poetic about wasn't that time they put away so-and-so, or when his team at the DA's office went after LAPD corruption, or when one defendant starting shooting up the courtroom.
No. When I asked him, he said the one the thing he missed most about those days was lunch at Langer's. Specifically, the pastrami sandwich. They'd walk over from the downtown DA's office, take a seat in one of the delicatessen's booths and order up "the usual." In his case, a No. 1 pastrami sandwich with cole slaw and Russian-style dressing on Langer's house-made bread.
"The best," he said, with a dreamy faraway look, as if he was imagining it floating before him.
"Langer's was the best," he repeated.
Eventually, he said he transferred to the Santa Monica office, and although his lunch venue switched to Izzy's or Wexler's, their pastrami never came close, in his opinion (and memory), to Langer's.
"Langer's is still there, Mr. Corn," I told him, "still mostly like it used to be too, I bet." "Why don't you go next time you travel to the mainland?"
He responded that he couldn't. His wife was too ill to travel, and he too was nearing the point where it was impractical for him to do so.
So I told him that the next time I was anywhere within striking range of downtown LA, I would make a pilgrimage to Langer's on his behalf, and pay my respects at the temple of pastrami with a No. 1.
Not long afterwards, I did. And boy was he right. Heaven on a plate. I am not overstating when I say that the No. 1 pastrami sandwich from Langer's was the best sandwich of any kind I ever consumed. Still is.
In the years since, Mr. Corn passed on to that big courtroom in the sky. I miss those days of sharing stories.
I've been back to Langer's many times since, and it has become a regular stop whenever in the LA area, most recently earlier this week. The place is still filled with lawyers (many of them downtown law firm partners taking their wide-eyed summer associates for lunch), cops, other time-warped regulars, and tourists.
As we're parking in Langer's lot, located a block away from the restaurant (see first picture above, which shows the big arrow on Langer's storefront pointing to "Parking 7th and Westlake"), our takings link occurs to us. As always, there is a takings link. (We have noted that we can find an eminent domain or property angle in nearly everything).
Right here at Langer's is your classic illustration of the larger parcel in eminent domain. Let's say the City of Los Angeles needed to condemn all or a part of the Langer's parking lot for whatever. You can easily see how a taking of that parcel would have a huge effect on the deli even though they are not physically contiguous, and thus how the property owner would have a very good argument for severance damages to the deli as part of just compensation and damages for the taking of the parking lot, considering that both the parking lot and the deli parcel are treated by the owners as one economic unit and thus should be considered the "larger parcel" for purposes of calculating severance damages for a taking of any portion.
This photo shows the relationship between Langer's parking lot, and its deli. As we wrote in a recent amicus brief, determining the larger parcel in eminent domain cases involves analysis of the "three unities" (use, title, contiguity), with the focus being on how the owner uses the two (or more) parcels together. These two lots are part-and-parcel one.
Incidentally, we also think this should have been the test the Supreme Court majority adopted in Murr v. Wisconsin to determine the larger parcel/denominator in regulatory takings, and not a muddled bunch of factors which have no mooring in either property or eminent domain law. Such a rule, focused on how the Murrs did or didn't use their two lots as a single unit, would have been the much more grounded, workable, fair, and legally appropriate test.
So we lingered at Langer's, soothing our wounded psyche and pride with a No. 1 pastrami sandwich. The No. 19 (pastrami, swiss cheese, coleslaw, Russian-style dressing) is -- according to Langer's itself -- their most popular menu item.
But in my opinion, the No. 1 is still the best. Here's to you, Mr. Corn.
