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As we wrap up another year, it’s time to look ahead to the one event that always gets our eminent domain blood pumping: the annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference. Details, including faculty list, a complete agenda, and registration information is posted here.

Now in its 43rd year, this flagship gathering remains the undisputed national hub for practitioners, academics, appraisers, and anyone else who lives and breathes property rights law. Mark your calendars for January 22-24, 2026, when we’ll convene at the JW Marriott Plant Riverside District in Savannah, Georgia. Think historic charm meets Southern hospitality, with moss-draped oaks, riverfront vibes, and enough ghost tours to inspire a dozen inverse condemnation hypotheticals. (For those of you who prefer pixels to palm trees, a live webcast option is available.)

What makes this conference indispensable? For starters, it’s the place to reconnect and talk shop with the…

Continue Reading Savannah Bound: Don’t Miss The 43rd ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (Jan. 22-24, 2026)

We have no idea what these cases might be about, or whether there is any substance behind the property owners’ objections, but these are headlines no condemnor could possibly like:

  • Bedford County Widow Sued (via wjactv.com) – “A Bedford County widow is being sued for trying to keep Columbia Gas Transmission off her property. The Texas-based company is using eminent domain to gain access to 67-year-old Mary Ellen McConnell’s 125-acre farm.”
  • Granny Vows To Fight For House (via wyff4.com) – “On the other side of Stenhouse Rd, 85-year-old Juanita Sullivan worries about eminent domain.”

Might as well say they’re trying to take property from cute, fluffy kittens.


Continue Reading Headlines No Condemnor Likes To See

Here at inversecondemnation.com we also cover eminent domain, regulatory takings, land use, and environmental issues. We even cover election law when it strikes our fancy.

But here’s one that’s in our core competency: in Frick v. City of Salina, No. 101,355 (July 9, 2010) the Kansas Supreme Court held that property owner-plaintiffs did not meet their summary judgment burden of opposing the city’s motion, and affirmed a judgment that the city did not inversely condemn their property by denying them the ability to construct driveways to access their land.

After the city condemned their property, the Fricks moved their businesses to another nearby site. The move, according to the Fricks, “was thwarted by the ‘inappropriate regulatory’ action of the City. Slip op. at 8. The regulatory actions complained of included:

(1) denial of reasonable access to the relocation site during the Project; (2) construction activities…

Continue Reading Kansas: Inverse Condemnation Case Resolved By Summary Judgment Burdens

If you can figure out the syntax of this post’s headline, you’ve just figured out the rationale of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in E-L Enterprises, Inc v. Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, No. 2008AP921 (July 2, 2010). In that case, the court held that the removal of groundwater was not a compensable taking because the property owner did not seek compensation for the taken water, but for damage to its building which relied in part on the groundwater for support.

Many years ago, in the course of constructing a new pipeline, the local sewer company removed groundwater under a neighboring building. Removal of the water resulted in the wooden supports under the building rotting, which caused the building to settle. The cost to replace the wooden supports with concrete supports was approximately $300,000.

The property owner brought claims for negligence, nuisance and inverse condemnation because the sewer company “physically took…

Continue Reading Wisconsin: Taking Groundwater Is Not A Taking Of A Building Damaged By The Taking Of The Groundwater

In United States v. 191.07 Acres of Land (Martinek) (No. 04-35131, Apr. 4, 2007), the Ninth Circuit addressed two interesting issues in the context of a federal taking of unpatented gold- mining claims in Alaska’s Denali National Park.

The first is a question of appellate procedure: whether a party waives the right to appeal the denial of a demand for a jury trial by not seeking an immediate interlocutory appeal. 

The government instituted eminent domain proceedings against the landowner (which entitles the landowner to request a jury trial on the issue of just compensation), and the landowner filed a claim for inverse condemnation (which does not carry with it the right to jury trial).  The trial court held that the landowner had only a single claim for compensation, and the parties stipulated that the taking occurred on a date earlier than the government’s declaration of taking.  Consequently, the court held…

Continue Reading ▪ Ninth Circuit on Jury Trials in Federal Eminent Domain and Inverse Condemnation Valuations