California law has decriminalized weed. Local governments, however, may regulate the use, sale, possession, and other things (like it can regulate other perfectly legal things). You know, police power kind of regulation.
Under that latter authority, the County of Santa Cruz adopted an ordinance that prohibits a medical weed facility from growing more than 99…
The Louisiana Court of Appeal’s opinion in Lowenburg v. Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans, No. 2019-CA-0524 (July 29, 2020) is long (54 pages) and detailed. But for those of you interested in inverse condemnation liability stemming from the impacts on property owners from public construction projects, this is your case.
This consolidated…
Check out the U.S. Court of Appeals’ opinion in Oneida Nation v. Village of Hobart, No. 19-1981 (July 30, 2020). The question was whether a local municipality has the power to regulate activity within the Village’s jurisdiction when that municipality is also wholly within the Oneida Nation.
The Nation runs the Big Apple Fest…
Nothing much to see in the Massachusetts Court of Appeals’ opinion in Comstock v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Gloucester, No. 19-P-1163 (Aug. 3, 2020), a somewhat typical zoning dispute.
Neighbor vs neighbor, over whether permits issued by a municipality (and approved by the ZBA) to renovate and replace an existing — but dilapidated…
California eminent domain law requires that if property taken isn’t used for the intended public use “within 10 years” of the adoption of the resolution of necessity, then the condemnor must offer to sell the property back to the (former) owner. Unless, that is, the condemnor adopts a new resolution “reauthorizing the existing stated public…
There’s a lot going on in the Michigan Supreme Court’s opinion in Mays v. Governor, No. 157335 (July 29, 2020). After all, the case involves claims for personal and property damages resulting from the Flint (Michigan) water crisis. That’s an issue we’ve been following that has also grabbed national headlines.
But if you…
How much can a condemnor alter the scope of the taking before the good faith offer required by state law also needs to be re-done?
That’s the question the Wyoming Supreme Court resolved in EOG Resources, Inc. v. Floyd C. Reno & Sons, Inc., No. S-20-0013 (July 23, 2020).
There, the condemnor’s original …
Here’s the cert petition that we’ve been waiting to drop in a case we’ve been following. Last we checked in, the Ninth Circuit (with concurral) had denied en banc review, over a dissental.
In Cedar Point Nursery v. Shiroma, 923 F.3d 524 (May 8, 2019), a 2-1 panel of the Ninth Circuit…
This is a case about trees. The County highway maintenance department entered the plaintiffs’ rural undeveloped land (with permission) to cut and remove certain trees, but then went to the wrong place and cut the wrong trees.
The plaintiffs wanted compensation for the trees, measured as the cost to replace the trees. The County offered …
Here’s a cert petition that we’ve been waiting to drop in a case we’ve been following. This one asks whether a state legislature’s virtual elimination of a cause of action is a taking.
The harsh reality is that farms and ranches can stink. But in Right to Farm Acts, many state legislatures, Indiana’s…
