Monthly Archives: January 2012

We just returned from the 29th Annual American Law Institute-American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation course in San Diego. As the course description explains: “[t]he power of eminent domain is being reshaped across the nation by court rulings and legislation.

The Owners’ Counsel of America recently honored one of the country’s top condemnation and property rights attorneys, Toby Prince Brigham, Esq., for his devotion to the constitutional right of private property ownership. For more than 50 years, Toby Brigham, has represented property owners in Florida and across the United States in eminent domain, inverse condemnation, regulatory taking challenges, condemnation blight, and related real estate, land use and business damage litigation at both the trial and appellate level.

In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a 2008 Florida Supreme Court decision upholding the Florida Beach and Shore Preservation Act which reversed a century of Florida law was a “judicial taking.” The Court found that the Florida court’s decision neither violated the Fifth Amendment’s due process guarantee nor consituted a taking of private property.

This case involved one of the largest condemnations of private property in the history of New York City. At issue were important questions concerning the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment.