General Articles

On December 2, 2025, Northeast Judicial District Judge Anthony Swain Benson delivered a significant victory for property rights in North Dakota, ruling in favor of the Northwest Landowners Association in its lawsuit against the State of North Dakota and the state Industrial Commission. The court found that a state law allowing the forced use of private pore space for underground carbon dioxide storage was unconstitutional. Derrick Braaten of Braaten...

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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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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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Casey Pipes, OCA’s Alabama member, has also been a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) since 2018.  ACREL is a national association of preeminent real estate lawyers focused on service to clients, colleagues and the profession.  Admission is by invitation only (as is OCA) after a rigorous screening process. ACREL’s distinguished, nationally-known lawyers have been elected to fellowship for their outstanding legal ability, experience and...

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Our OCA Primary Member from South Carolina, Jeff Tibbals, has put together the summary and comment below on recent developments in South Carolina’s eminent domain laws, which should be of particular interest to South Carolina property owners Recent South Carolina legislation raises an important legal question about the extent to which private utility companies—such as Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper—can exercise eminent domain powers in South Carolina. This issue...

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Pope Leo XIV grew up in a small home at 212 E. 141st Place in a Chicago suburb, Dolton, IL.  His childhood home was recently renovated and the owner planned to sell it at auction.  However, before the auction could take place, the City of Dalton expressed interest in acquiring the property, via negotiation or, if negotiations failed, eminent domain.  Eminent domain requires a public purpose and public use...

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