OCA Blog

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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James Burling, Vice President of Legal Affairs at Pacific Legal Foundation, will receive the 2022 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize at William & Mary Law School’s 19th annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference on September 29-30 sponsored by the William & Mary Property Rights Project. The Property Rights Project presents the award each year to an individual whose scholarly work and accomplishments affirm that property rights are fundamental to protecting individual and...

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The North Carolina Department of Transportation will pay $2.9 million to a landowner after its road-widening operation required it to take part of a three-acre tract of land in Caldwell County that had previously had an unobstructed view into the Grandfather Mountain Gorge, OCA North Carolina member George Autry reports. NCDOT had initially contended that the plot, owned by the Arbuckle family, was unsuitable for development altogether. But after...

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An historic station that was built as the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Conshohocken Station circa 1890 is now the subject of a taking by the Borough of Conshohocken for alleged park purposes.  Although passenger service at the Outbound Station ceased in 1962, after the property was purchased by Joe and Barb Collins and lovingly restored, it was used for nearly 30 years as an antique store, and more recently, leased to...

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