Yearly Archives: 2010

Robert Thomas, OCA Hawaii Member, will be covering the oral arguments in Klumpp v. Borough of Avalon, No. A-49-09 (certification granted Nov. 10, 2009) before the New Jersey Supreme Court today beginning at 11:00 AM (EDT). The New Jersey Supreme Court will review the decision of the Appellate Division which held that the government can assert inverse condemnation in order to acquire private property without compensation.

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to take place this afternoon for Developer Forest City Ratner’s controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. News sources have indicted that local and state officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Patterson, are expected to attend.

Last week, Fox News featured a Virginia property owner, Edd Jennings, whose family farm might be “the most condemned property in America.” Fox & Friends Host Steve Doocy spoke with the Virginia cattle rancher and his attorney, Joe Waldo (Virginia OCA Member), concerning Jennings’ inverse condemnation suit against the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). In the current litigation, Jennings alleges inverse condemnation against VDOT, because the department did not exercise eminent domain before interfering with his property rights.

Unless it needs property to build a road, a subway line, a water-treatment plant, or a similar piece of truly public infrastructure—or unless a piece of land poses a clear and present danger to the public—the state should keep its hands off people’s property.

With a bit of irony, the sale of 38 acres of Jacksonville Port Authority (“Jaxport”) waterfront property to Keystone Coal Company and related entities (“Keystone”) closed on March 1, 2010 closing the final chapter of an eminent domain battle that began in 2005. Keystone purchased Jaxport’s property adjacent to Keystone’s 70 acre parcel for $13,204,844.00 under a global settlement agreement. Keystone’s 70 acres was the subject of Jaxport’s attempted seizure by a “slow-take” eminent domain action filed in 2005. (See our previous post here.)

Owner’s Counsel Attorney Michael Rikon, on New York’s definition of blight, Eminent Domain Changes Seek to Limit State’s Power to Seize Property, by David King, Gotham Gazette February 4, 2010

The Owners’ Counsel of America (OCA) will honor two journalists in 2010 with the Crystal Eagle Award for their remarkable journalism and unwavering effort to be critical and objective, specifically with respect to their investigative reportage and balanced analysis regarding the government’s use of eminent domain.

Americans became more familiar with the government’s power and use of eminent domain following the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London, however, for New Yorkers eminent domain has become personal. The use of eminent domain in New York State, and particularly in metro New York, has been heavily discussed, analyzed and criticized in recent news, specifically with the debate surrounding the planned Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn and the December 3, 2009 appellate court decision barring the use of eminent domain for a proposed Columbia University expansion project in the West Harlem.

In a post Friday at Atlantic Yards Report, Norman Oder quotes Senator Bill Perkins at the NY Senate hearing on eminent domain reform, “This [eminent domain reform] is not like instant rice… it’s going to be an uphill battle, we’re going to win, without a doubt, but I don’t want us to think this is going to happen overnight… This is a struggle that is going to require our continued participation and continued vigilance.” Speaking on momentum for reform in the legislature, Sen. Perkins said that members of both the Assembly and Senate have reached out to him indicating that they are interested in looking more closely at the need for eminent domain reform.

The Senate Standing Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, chaired by Senator Bill Perkins, conducted a public hearing yesterday (Tuesday, January 5, 2010) on eminent domain abuse in New York. The hearing entitled “Unconstitutional: What the Appellate Division’s Eminent Domain Ruling Means for the Columbia Expansion,” focused upon the recent Appellate Division ruling against the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) in the proposed condemnation for expansion of Columbia University, Kaur v. New York State Urban Development Corporation, decided December 3, 2009. (See the following blog commentaries on this decision – Atlantic Yards Report, Inverse Condemnation and Charles Bagli on the New York Times blog here.)