OCA Blog

Darius Dynkowski, OCA’s Member from Michigan and a shareholder at Butzel Long in Detroit, recently secured a jury verdict of $1,175,000 against the City of Wyoming, Michigan. The verdict, returned in February 2026, resolved a condemnation dispute over easement rights acquired for a non-motorized pedestrian bridge and trail along the client’s property. The City of Wyoming, a suburb of Grand Rapids, had originally offered $135,000 for those rights, a...

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Joe Suntum, OCA’s Primary Member from Maryland, and Benjamin Schneider of his office, recently prevailed in a complex “avigation easement” case for clients in Carroll County, Maryland, in Commissioners of Carroll County vs. Kathleen O’Connor, et al. C-06-CV-23-000315.  This was a complex case involving condemnation of residential property for a County airport. The clients in this matter own a 79-acre property upon which they constructed their dream home. Twenty years...

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OCA member Clint Sargent of Sioux Falls, South Dakota will be arguing on behalf of his landowner client before the South Dakota Supreme Court on October 9, 2025, during the Court’s October term being held at the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law. The case, City of Sioux Falls v. Johnson Properties LLC, was tried to a jury in November 2024.  The City had instituted a condemnation...

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OCA’s Oklahoma Primary Member, Kim Ritchie, and Affiliate Member Nick Atwood, received a successful appellate decision last month in which the Oklahoma State Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision awarding fees and costs to the landowner in an eminent domain case. The state Department of Transportation (DOT) challenged the trial court decision on (1) the fee and cost award on equal protection grounds and (2) improper inclusion...

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The American Bar Association (ABA) Section of State, Local, and Tribal Government Law presented the Jefferson B. Fordham/Anita P. Miller Advocacy Award to OCA Honorary Member (and former OCA Hawaii Primary Member) Robert Thomas at an award luncheon held in Toronto on August 8, 2025.  Robert is currently with Pacific Legal Foundation, but before that he practiced with Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert in Honolulu. The program for the...

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OCA’s North Dakota Member, Derrick Braaten, won an important ruling from the North Dakota Supreme Court on behalf of landowners last month.  On behalf of the Northwest Landowners Association, Mr. Braaten brought claims that a North Dakota statute was facially unconstitutional because its only effect could be to authorize an unconstitutional taking and violation of due process. The district court dismissed the claims on numerous procedural grounds, such as...

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Applications are now open for the 2025 Toby Brigham Scholarship, which provides a chance to attend the ALI Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Conference in Savannah, Georgia, January 22-24 of 2026 and learn about eminent domain while networking with lawyers from across the country who practice in this area. The scholarship includes the conference itself and access to Owners Counsel of America events in Savannah.  2L & 3L law...

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Last month, a final judgment was entered in a New Jersey eminent domain case handled by OCA primary member Anthony DellaPelle, confirming a jury verdict he obtained a year ago in the amount of $4,707,631.36 in the matter entitled N.J. Department of Environmental Protection v. Midway Beach Condominium Association, Inc., bearing New Jersey Superior Court Docket No. OCN-L-2653-17.  The case involved the taking, in 2017, of a beach containing approximately...

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The relevant parcel determination is required in every appraisal. A relevant parcel may be defined as the tract or tracts of land that possess a unity of ownership and have the same—or an integrated—highest and best use. This determination is inseparable from the highest and best use determination because it is an exercise necessarily stemming from the principle that just compensation be based on the highest and best use...

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The 2025 Virginia General Assembly enacted a couple of eminent domain focused pieces of legislation this year, with the majority of the meaningful reform being contained in SB1158.  State Senator Mark Obenshain, SB1158’s patron, has been a stalwart for bi-partisan, common sense property rights reform for over a decade and again convinced the General Assembly and Governor Youngkin to make more fair and uniform the process by which private...

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