OCA Blog

Owners’ Counsel of America is pleased to announce that Shelly Vallone, a third year law student attending William & Mary Law School, has received the Toby Prince Brigham OCA Scholarship for 2023. “Shelly received a glowing recommendation from Robert Thomas, her Property Rights professor at William & Mary,” says OCA Executive Director, Leslie Fields. The Scholarship was created to honor OCA’s founder, Toby Prince Brigham. It is designed to inspire the...

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In Lafayette City-Parish vs. Bendel Partnership, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Louisiana ruled in favor of OCA Member Randy Smith, when it sided with his client that LCP lacked the prerequisite necessity to take the property by eminent domain for a detention pond project. Agreeing with the trial court’s findings based on an extensive evidentiary hearing, the Court ruled that the Parish had acted arbitrarily,...

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Today, an excellent Student Program started off the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference at William & Mary law school. Named in recognition of Toby Prince Brigham and Gideon Kanner for their lifetime contributions to private property rights and their efforts to advance constitutional protection of property, the conference began in 2004 and continues to this day.  The conference is designed to bring together members of the bench, bar, and academia...

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In response to an emergency ordinance recently approved by the Town of Vail to suspend all permits for any activity on Vail Resorts’ property in East Vail, Colorado, pending the filing of a condemnation action to preclude a planned affordable housing project, OCA Member Sarah Kellner has filed a lawsuit against the Town calling its actions both “drastic and unprecedented.” Vail Resorts objects to the emergency ordinance because the...

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Don’t miss next year’s Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference taking place in Austin Texas from February 2-4th. Celebrating its 40th Year, this conference has become the place to be for any professional working in the area of property rights or eminent domain law. For those interested in registering early, not only for the conference, but for the limited book of discounted rooms at the conference hotel, simply...

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Aided by many people, including OCA’s Maryland member Joe Suntum, the Eaddy family finally prevailed in their 18 year battle with the city of Baltimore and New York-based La Cité Development to preserve their home from being taken by eminent domain. “Losing my home is like a death to me,” states the message painted some time ago on the side of the Eaddy house, a place they had lived...

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Clint Schumacher recently interviewed the leaders of three important national property rights organizations on his Eminent Domain Podcast. They were Dana Berliner, Senior Vice President and Litigation Director for the Institute for Justice; James Burling, Vice President of Legal Affairs for Pacific Legal Foundation, and Leslie Fields, Executive Director of the Owners’ Counsel of America. During the podcast, you will learn how each got their start in the field of eminent...

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Owners’ Counsel of America was founded in 2000 by Toby Prince Brigham, one of the premier eminent domain lawyers in the country. After graduating from Yale University in 1956 and the University of Florida College of Law in 1959, Mr. Brigham devoted the next 54 years of his law practice exclusively to the defense of property rights on behalf of private landowners. At the time he began practicing law,...

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It may come as a surprise to many property owners that depending upon the gun laws in a given state they may not have any legal right to prevent trespasses onto their own property from hunters and dogs seeking to retrieve. But recently several property owners in Virginia sued the Department of Wildlife Resources over the impact of Va. Code § 18.2-136  which provides that “fox hunters and coon...

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Owners’ Counsel of America Honorary Member and Senior Lawyer with the Pacific Legal Foundation Robert Thomas has recently written an article on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent blockbuster regulatory takings decision in Cedar Point v. Hassid. The article was published by The Practical Real Estate Lawyer. In it, Mr. Thomas concludes that in arriving at its decision defining the critical term in the case—the meaning of “private property” in...

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