OCA Blog

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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Property owners from across the country have been reaching out to Owners’ Counsel of America in search of answers to the scourge of government code enforcement actions being leveled against them. These actions can sometimes lead to the seizure of private property. While this is not a situation that OCA or OCA members generally handle, in an effort to provide some useful guidance and assistance to property owners being...

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OCA Honorary Member and Vice President of Legal Affairs for the Pacific Legal Foundation, James Burling, writes in a new article about the many ways and means by which governments, particularly in California, discriminated against Asian immigrants’ right to earn a living and hold property. When the Statue of Liberty was erected in 1875, Jim writes, it stood as a beacon for freedom and openness, welcoming immigrants from around...

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A state judge recently halted work on a Louisiana drainage project being promoted by the Lafayette Consolidated Government (LCG) that it claims is designed to ease flooding and drainage issues. But the property selected for this work has belonged to the same family for almost 100 years, and according to the family’s lawyer, Randall Smith, lacks necessary permits and will in no way address the drainage concerns that the...

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