Category: OCA Blog

December 20th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

OCA Honorary Member Amy Brigham Boulris Elected to American Law Institute

In December 2023, the American Law Institute announced that OCA Honorary Member Amy Brigham Boulris would be one of several  newly elected members. In its’ announcement, ALI stated that it was “pleased to welcome these exceptional individuals to the Institute.” Amy Brigham Boulris is a veteran property rights litigator who exclusively represents landowners in eminent domain, takings, development exactions, Harris Act, and civil rights contexts. Highly experienced at both...

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December 18th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

OCA Member Randy Smith Obtains Important Court Ruling to Enforce Payment of Inverse Condemnation Damage Award

Can a governmental body avoid paying an inverse condemnation damage judgment by simply refusing to do so on the basis of a state constitutional provision prohibiting seizure of state assets to satisfy money judgments? That is what the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans attempted to do when faced with having to pay property owners over $10 million on various judgments, but specifically in one test case over...

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December 4th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

The Passing of Legendary Lawyer, Scholar and Advocate Gideon Kanner

Owners’ Counsel of America is saddened to announce that Gideon Kanner, a fierce defender of property rights, who helped to found the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, has died at the age of 93. While a complete list of Gideon’s professional accomplishments are too extensive to chronicle here, below are but a few highlights from his extraordinary career. After 10 years as a rocket engineer, followed by a stellar...

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November 13th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

OCA Member Josh Baker Speaks on the Historic Use of Eminent Domain By Universities to Displace Black Communities

Public universities have a long history of expanding campuses in the name of progress and economic growth. But often, these expansions used eminent domain and property seizures to disrupt and diminish thriving Black communities across the country. In the second half of the 20th century, the rapid growth of public universities across Virginia and many other states uprooted hundreds of Black families, hindering them from accumulating wealth in the...

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August 7th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

Help Us Promote the Toby Prince Brigham OCA Scholarship for 2023

In honor of lawyer Toby Prince Brigham’s legacy of professionalism and achievement, in 2021 OCA established the Toby Prince Brigham OCA Scholarship to pay for all expenses of a second or third year law student to attend the ALI-CLE Eminent Domain conference and associated OCA events. Next year’s conference will be held from February 1-3 in New Orleans, La. This unique scholarship affords the student the opportunity to learn...

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July 13th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

Michael Berger to Receive Jefferson B. Fordham Lifetime Achievement Award by ABA

Owners’ Counsel of America is pleased to announce that OCA Honorary Member Michael Berger, Senior Counsel with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, will be honored with the receipt of the Jefferson B. Fordham Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the American Bar Association (ABA) at its’ 2023 ABA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado on Friday, August 4, 2023. As one of the top land use and condemnation...

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May 26th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

2022 SCOTUS Term Delivers Blockbuster Decisions on Property Rights

Join OCA Member and Pacific Legal Foundation lawyer Robert Thomas on August 9th as he moderates a podcast on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 term and the three major property cases decided in favor of property ownership: Tyler v. Hennepin County (government’s keeping the excess value when seizing and selling a home to satisfy a property tax debt is a taking), Wilkins v. United States (is the federal Quiet...

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March 14th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

OCA Files Amicus Brief in Trails Act Case to Uphold Legal Precedent

Owners’ Counsel of America, along with four other national property rights groups recently filed an Amicus Brief challenging the U.S. government’s request to revisit a property owners’ takings claim based on the Trails Act. The groups’ brief noted that several of the court’s rulings dating back two decades established a clear precedent on the matter which the government was clearly seeking to overturn. Established precedent holds that the Trails Act gives rise...

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March 14th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

OCA Members Win Multi-Million Dollar Verdict on Behalf of Property Owner

A North Carolina jury awarded a property owner $5,084,000 earlier this week for the taking of his partially redeveloped hotel. Amar Patel was represented by the Cranfill Sumner LLP attorneys George Autry and Jeremy Hopkins, who are also members of Owners’ Counsel of America. The trial lasted six days with the jury ultimately deliberating for approximately 50 minutes. The department initially offered Mr. Patel $244,825 for the partial taking...

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March 6th, 2023 — In OCA Blog

OCA Joins in Amicus Brief in Supreme Court Home Equity Theft Case

Geraldine Tyler, age 94, owed Hennepin County $2,300 in unpaid property taxes on her Minnesota condominium. When that small amount ultimately generated $12,700 in fees, the County seized her condo and sold it to pay the taxes and fees. By the time the condo was sold for $40,000, Tyler’s total debt came to $15,000. But the county did not return the excess $25,000 to Tyler. Instead, it pocketed the...

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