Monthly Archives: October 2020

October 30th, 2020 — In News & Events

Announcing OCA and PLF Joint Webinar on Shutdowns, Closures, Moratoria, and Bans

Since the beginning of the pandemic we have seen Governors and State Legislatures across the country implement  an array of policies in an attempt to contain the virus and its socioeconomic impacts. Many of these policies effectively broadened the scope of government power while placing a heavy burden on property owners and businesses already struggling during the COVID 19 pandemic.  Jim Burling from Pacific Legal Foundation and Robert Thomas from Owners’ Counsel of America will explore these COVID related policies and legal challenges. Topics to be covered include:  The constitutional implications of emergency orders restricting property and business owners The rights and legal status of property and business owners impacted by emergency orders Past, current and upcoming litigation challenging emergency orders This is a public event. If you would like to register, please click here.

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October 30th, 2020 — In News & Events

William & Mary Law School’s Annual Property Rights Conference Brings Experts Together Virtually

For those who could not attend this year’s Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference on October 1-2 at William & Mary Law School, a link to the panels, speakers and recorded sessions can be found on OCA Member Robert Thomas’ Inverse Condemnation Blog. This year’s conference opened with the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize being awarded to Professor Henry E. Smith of Harvard Law School. The prize is named in honor of the lifetime contributions of Toby Prince Brigham, founding partner of Brigham Moore, LLP and founder of OCA, and Gideon Kanner, professor of law emeritus at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. The award is given annually and is presented to a scholar, practitioner or jurist whose work affirms the fundamental importance of property rights.

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October 28th, 2020 — In Articles

Mike Rikon and Jon Houghton Discuss A Recent New York Case Addressing the Practice of Advance Payments and Sandbagging

In an article published in the New York Law Journal Owners’ Counsel of America Members Mike Rikon and Jon Houghon discuss the recent decision in Staten Island Land Corp and how it seeks to address the problem of advance payments and sandbagging in the State of New York. As they explain in the article, under New York’s quick take statute, the government can take title to property which it seeks to condemn by making an advance payment based on the government’s ‘highest approved appraisal’ before the final determination of just compensation has been made, which payment can subsequently be used by the owner to purchase replacement property. However, what happens if the condemning authority tenders a second (and much lower) appraisal at trial (a tactic called sandbagging) that results in a final just compensation determination well below the advanced payment?  In such situations, the landowner can be forced to repay the deficiency amount, something that is difficult to do if the owner has already reinvested the money in replacement property. Read here on how the Staten Island case seeks to remedy this obvious injustice.

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October 14th, 2020 — In Articles

Nailing Down Knick and Governmental Takings in Louisiana by OCA Member Randall A. Smith

Owners’ Counsel of America member Randall Smith writes in a new article published in the October/November issue of the Louisiana Bar Journal about the unique interplay between Louisiana’s expropriation laws and the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent landmark decision in the Knick case. The article focuses on what Knick may mean for Covid-19 claims against local governments in the wake of mass shutdowns and other regulatory measures that are currently impacting businesses and property interests, both in Louisiana and nationwide. The article also highlights a case currently before the 5th Circuit involving enforcement of a $28,764,685 just compensation and interest judgment against Bernard Port that Randall Smith obtained for his client Violet Dock Port, as a result of the taking of  its’ port facility in 2010. To read the Bar Journal article in full click here. 

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October 6th, 2020 — In News & Events

OCA Crystal Eagle Award Winner and Law Professor David Callies Authors Book on Landmark Knick Case

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Knick v. Township of Scott has been aptly described as one of the most influential property rights cases of the last decade. In Knick, the Court explicitly overturned the second prong of the so-called Williamson County ripeness test that required property owners to seek a remedy through state action –usually just compensation – for the alleged taking before coming to federal court. In David Callies new book, published by the American Bar Association, entitled “Regulatory Takings after Knick: Total Takings, the Nuisance Exception, and Background Principles Exceptions: Public Trust Doctrine, Custom, and Statutes,” he provides a summary of takings law in general and discusses in detail total takings and the exceptions which permit governments to so strictly regulate property as to permit no economically beneficial use.  Legal scholars from across the country already have commented on the importance of Mr. Callies’s work. Professor Henry Smith of Harvard Law School called it “a lucid and insightful guide through the labyrinth of the caselaw on categorical takings,” and Steven J. Eagle, of the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, noted that the new book “sets forth federal and state law respecting the tension between private property rights and government regulation in a way useful to both general readers and specialists.” David Callies is a professor of law at the University of Hawaii Law School and a former recipient of the prestigious Crystal Eagle Award from Owners’ Counsel of America.  .

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