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Is Preliminary Entry a Taking Requiring Just Compensation?

by: Joseph Grather
27 Nov 2023
The Eminent Domain Act of 1971 grants a condemnor a right to “preliminary entry.”  The statute provides: “Prior to the commencement of any action, a prospective condemnor and its employees and agents, during reasonable business hours, may enter upon any property which it has authority to condemn for the purpose of making studies, surveys, tests,... Read More

Illinois Falls in Line With Kirby Forest and Reverses Big Tax Refund

by: Joseph Grather
1 Nov 2023
  The Illinois Supreme Court filed an opinion on September 21, 2023 in MB Financial Bank v. Brophy (opinion here).  In 2018, the property owner filed a complaint seeking a refund for overpayment of taxes on the low-income apartment building known as Evergreen Terrace it operated in Chicago.  The property owner claimed that it had... Read More

Holy Sheetz! Another Takings Case on the Supreme Court Docket

by: Joseph Grather
5 Oct 2023
  Yesterday, we posted about the Supreme Court granting cert. in a property rights case out of Texas on Sept. 29th, but forgot to mention that they accepted two cases that day. The second is an exactions case filed by property owner George Sheetz against the County of El Dorado, California.  The well-crafted Petition should... Read More

Texas Takings Case Accepted by US Supreme Court

by: Joseph Grather
3 Oct 2023
Big congratulations to our colleagues at the Institute for Justice for persuading the High Court to hear another takings case. On Friday, the Court granted the petition for certiorari on the following question presented: “In First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. County of Los Angeles, this Court recognized that the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause was... Read More

NJ Inverse Condemnation Action “Grossly Out of Time”

by: Joseph Grather
30 Aug 2023
A two-judge panel of the Superior Court, Appellate Division issued a per curiam opinion yesterday in 546 OG, LLC v Edgewater affirming summary judgment dismissal of a property owner’s “inverse” condemnation claim. Opinion – 546 OG LLC v. Edgewater.  Basically, when a property owner alleges that its property has been taken by a governmental entity... Read More

Eminent Domain in the Amazon Rainforest?

by: Joseph Grather
24 Aug 2023
Being a “dirt lawyer” or owner’s counsel for the past twenty years – you start seeing takings’ law in everyday life.  For instance, this past Sunday I read an article in the New York Times – Brazil Found Last Survivors of Amazon Tribe. Now What? (August 20, 2023)  In 1989, a government agent, deep in... Read More

Is Rent Control A Taking? NY Owners Ask Supreme Court to Decide

by: Joseph Grather
17 Aug 2023
Catching up on my summer reading.  I stumbled across a great law review article by Michael Berger entitled, The Joy of Takings (Journal of Law & Policy 2017), which is recommended reading for any condemnation practitioner and may be the subject of a future blog. But today, I wanted to share a Petition for Certiorari... Read More

“Perpetual” Storm Protection???

by: Joseph Grather
14 Aug 2023
Circa 2018 project picture. Long-time owners of ocean-front property in New Jersey and Long Island engaged in a ritual every Spring or early Summer. Pushing sand that had eroded from winter storms.  It was almost a right of passage.  That all changed after Hurricane Sandy when government intervened with the all too familiar, “we’re here... Read More

Sandy Dunes Still Creating Property Rights Disputes

by: Joseph Grather
31 Jul 2023
Earlier this year, several oceanfront property owners in Toms River sued their homeowner’s association and the municipality because they were precluded from building a “dune walkover.”  The dunes are those that were funded after the devastation to the Jersey Shore caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.  The project was designed by the Army Corps of... Read More

Oklahoma! (Childers v. Arrowood)

by: Joseph Grather
29 Jun 2023
“Where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain….” Wait, nope, that’s for another blog. Another strange takings case from our Owners Counsel of America colleague Robert Thomas, as reported in his Inverse Condemnation Blog (God only knows how he finds these cases!) This one comes from the Oklahoma Supreme Court and involves the taking of... Read More