We’ve been meaning to post up the California Court of Appeal’s (now published) opinion in Alliance for Responsible Planning v. Taylor, No. C085712 (May 4, 2021) for a bit, and while we were distracted by lawyer work last week, our friend and colleague Bryan Wenter beat us to it with “County’s Initiative-Enacted General
Back In The Courtroom: A Brief Report From An (In-Person!) Trial
You may have noticed that we’ve been mostly offline the past week and that we have not been posting with our usual frequency.
Fear not: we were not AWOL or otherwise goofing off. We were actually doing what lawyers do: appearing in a real, live, in-person courtroom!
This was a bench trial in the Sixteenth
Mark Your Calendars: 2021 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, Williamsburg, Virginia, Sept 30-Oct 1 (in-person)
Mark your calendars for September 30 – October 1, 2021, and join us at the William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia for the 18th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference. It’s planned to be in-person, so when we mean “join us” we really mean join us.
This year the Conference will recognize the lifetime
There’s A Difference Between “Land” And “Property” Under Wisconsin’s Change-of-Grade Damages Statute
You might think that a statute the legislature adopted to allow more recovery than under constitutional takings law, that requires the DOT to pay landowners whose lands abut a change-of-grade project for the value of “any damages to said lands occasioned by such change of grade,” would include the situation where the DOT converted a
Louisiana SCT: No Statutory Attorneys’ Fees For Pipeline Taking – But LA Constitution’s Just Comp Clause Requires Owners Recover “The Full Extent” Of Their Loss (Which Includes Fees)
A private pipeline did what pipelines often do: it started negotiating with property owners for the property needed, but at the same time pressed forward. It reached agreement with some owners, others not. It filed “expropriation” lawsuits (for it is in Louisiana that our scene lies). It started to build, even before judgments of expropriation.
California Trial Court: No Greater Public Interest In Town Seizing Private Water Company To Operate It Itself (Generic “Vision Statements” Don’t Count)
67-day bench trial. 84-page decision. Check out the Superior Court’s Tentative Statement of Decision in a case in which a property owner has successfully challenged the Town of Apple Valley’s attempt to take a private water company so the Town could operate it itself.
There’s a lot going on, and to understand the decision you
Sixth Circuit Says No To Res Judicata As The Latest Williamson County Workaround
Check out the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s opinion in Harrison v. Montgomery County, No. 20-4-51 (May 11, 2021). It’s short, readable. And, most importantly, involves a subject that’s near and dear: takings, and the myriad potential traps that await an unsuspecting property owner making such a claim.
If you’ve ever
How “Res Judicata” Is A Failed Condemnation?
In this recent decision, the North Carolina Court of Appeals held that when a condemnation is invalidated a court — but the condemnor has, by quick-take, already built the project for which it (wrongly) took the property — the owner is not limited to an inverse condemnation remedy (compensation), but may also bring a
Fed Cir (unpub.): Feds Not Liable For Taking When Wyld Stallyns Drink Your Milkshake
OK, we get that law is a serious business and that one should never make light of others’ situations. Each person’s claim is important to them, at the very least.
But after reading today’s Federal Circuit opinion (unpublished, nonprecedential) in Bench Creek Ranch, LLC v. United States, No. 20-2151 (May 7, 2021), we couldn’t
Fla App Doubles Down On That Weird Property Isn’t “Property” Thing
We’re hoping that someone can explain the Florida District Court of Appeal’s recent opinion in Bondar v. Town of Jupiter Inlet Colony, No. 4D19-2118 (May 5, 2021) in a way that makes sense other than the old apocryphal tale of “I don’t know why we do things this way, except that we’ve always done