OCA Blog
December 4th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
The Passing of Legendary Lawyer, Scholar and Advocate Gideon Kanner
Owners’ Counsel of America is saddened to announce that Gideon Kanner, a fierce defender of property rights, who helped to found the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, has died at the age of 93. While a complete list of Gideon’s professional accomplishments are too extensive to chronicle here, below are but a few highlights from his extraordinary career. After 10 years as a rocket engineer, followed by a stellar...
Read MoreNovember 13th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
OCA Member Josh Baker Speaks on the Historic Use of Eminent Domain By Universities to Displace Black Communities
Public universities have a long history of expanding campuses in the name of progress and economic growth. But often, these expansions used eminent domain and property seizures to disrupt and diminish thriving Black communities across the country. In the second half of the 20th century, the rapid growth of public universities across Virginia and many other states uprooted hundreds of Black families, hindering them from accumulating wealth in the...
Read MoreAugust 7th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
Help Us Promote the Toby Prince Brigham OCA Scholarship for 2023
In honor of lawyer Toby Prince Brigham’s legacy of professionalism and achievement, in 2021 OCA established the Toby Prince Brigham OCA Scholarship to pay for all expenses of a second or third year law student to attend the ALI-CLE Eminent Domain conference and associated OCA events. Next year’s conference will be held from February 1-3 in New Orleans, La. This unique scholarship affords the student the opportunity to learn...
Read MoreJuly 13th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
Michael Berger to Receive Jefferson B. Fordham Lifetime Achievement Award by ABA
Owners’ Counsel of America is pleased to announce that OCA Honorary Member Michael Berger, Senior Counsel with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, will be honored with the receipt of the Jefferson B. Fordham Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the American Bar Association (ABA) at its’ 2023 ABA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado on Friday, August 4, 2023. As one of the top land use and condemnation...
Read MoreMay 26th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
2022 SCOTUS Term Delivers Blockbuster Decisions on Property Rights
Join OCA Member and Pacific Legal Foundation lawyer Robert Thomas on August 9th as he moderates a podcast on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 term and the three major property cases decided in favor of property ownership: Tyler v. Hennepin County (government’s keeping the excess value when seizing and selling a home to satisfy a property tax debt is a taking), Wilkins v. United States (is the federal Quiet...
Read MoreMarch 14th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
OCA Files Amicus Brief in Trails Act Case to Uphold Legal Precedent
Owners’ Counsel of America, along with four other national property rights groups recently filed an Amicus Brief challenging the U.S. government’s request to revisit a property owners’ takings claim based on the Trails Act. The groups’ brief noted that several of the court’s rulings dating back two decades established a clear precedent on the matter which the government was clearly seeking to overturn. Established precedent holds that the Trails Act gives rise...
Read MoreMarch 14th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
OCA Members Win Multi-Million Dollar Verdict on Behalf of Property Owner
A North Carolina jury awarded a property owner $5,084,000 earlier this week for the taking of his partially redeveloped hotel. Amar Patel was represented by the Cranfill Sumner LLP attorneys George Autry and Jeremy Hopkins, who are also members of Owners’ Counsel of America. The trial lasted six days with the jury ultimately deliberating for approximately 50 minutes. The department initially offered Mr. Patel $244,825 for the partial taking...
Read MoreMarch 6th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
OCA Joins in Amicus Brief in Supreme Court Home Equity Theft Case
Geraldine Tyler, age 94, owed Hennepin County $2,300 in unpaid property taxes on her Minnesota condominium. When that small amount ultimately generated $12,700 in fees, the County seized her condo and sold it to pay the taxes and fees. By the time the condo was sold for $40,000, Tyler’s total debt came to $15,000. But the county did not return the excess $25,000 to Tyler. Instead, it pocketed the...
Read MoreFebruary 28th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
Mike Rikon Writes About Urban Renewal and the Assault on Black Neighborhoods
In his recent article written for the New York Law Journal and entitled ‘Urban Renewal, An Assault on Black Neighborhoods,” OCA member Mike Rikon speaks of how interstate highways, many of which were built to serve white suburban commuters, “were shoved through black neighborhoods, causing surrounding blight and pollution.” Mr. Rikon says these actions were fueled by the Federal Housing Act of 1949, which authorized cities to use eminent...
Read MoreFebruary 27th, 2023 — In OCA Blog
OCA Member Dan Manning Represents Property Owners Being Relocated Due to Flooding
OCA’s Iowa Member, Dan Manning, is now representing several property owners in Cedar Rapids who are losing their homes because of past floods and fears about future flooding in their neighborhood near the riverfront area. Calling the takings “above and beyond” the usual scenario, Dan Manning explained the difficulty his clients faced in finding replacement property. “These are their homes, they’ve been there and they’re very unique in their...
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