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Appeals Court: Hearing Was Required Regarding Impact of Wetlands
On May 6, 2014, the Appellate Division published its opinion in New Jersey Transit v. Mori (Docket No. A-0122-12T4). The case involved acquisition of property impacted by wetlands regulated by the Army Corps of Engineers. Plaintiff’s estimate of compensation for the one acre (out of fourteen) partial taking was $61,000 given the presence of wetlands... Read More
Netherlands v State – Regulatory Taking Denied
“The State may not put so potent a Hobbesian stick into the Lockean bundle.” Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, 533 U.S. 606, 627 (2001). That was the United States Supreme Court’s response thirteen years ago to Rhode Island’s argument that property owners could claim no loss from legislation shaping and defining property rights enacted prior to... Read More
Update – "House of Cards" Legislation Not Passed
As reported by the Washington Post here, a bill that would have increased the annual “tax credit” budget for production companies filming in Maryland (like Netflix’s House of Cards and HBO’s Veep) from $15M to $18.5M failed to pass last week in Maryland’s General Assembly. The fate of House of Cards filming in Maryland remains... Read More
Maryland Threatens to Take "House of Cards" by Eminent Domain
What skullduggery is this? Netflix/House of Cards’ star, Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) was recently spotted in Annapolis lobbying legislators towards a new law that would make available additional tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks from the State of Maryland (reported by Bloomberg here). A legislative hearing is scheduled for April 2, 2013 before Maryland... Read More
Happy Trails – Property Owner Wins Before USSCT
On March 10, 2014, the United States Supreme Court issued its almost unanimous (8-1) decision in Brandt Revocable Trust v United States. The question presented is detailed in our prior blog here, but simply stated, the government argued that it owned the ground underneath an abandoned railroad right-of-way that permitted it to continue the Medicine Bow... Read More
Private Property Rights Protection Act Passed by the House
A federal bill H.R. 1944 introduced back in May of 2013, has been passed by the House of Representatives. Reported here. All the details and text of the bill are set forth in our June 2013 blog. Simply stated, the bill purportedly will punish States that abuse the eminent domain power by limiting federal dollars for... Read More
Experts' Valuation Arguments Rejected as Net Opinion in Hoboken Taking
Hudson County Assignment Judge Peter Bariso recently rejected a property owner’s argument that the date of value should be a date earlier than the commencement of condemnation action on August 23, 2012. City of Hoboken v. Ponte Equities, Inc. (Docket No. HUD-L-4095-12). The property owner argued that the date of value should have been June... Read More
Undersized Lot Receives Variance From Court to Avoide Inverse Condemnation Claim
While not our prototypical condemnation case, a trial judge in Ocean County aptly reversed a local zoning board in Jerman v. Tp. of Manchester (Docket No. OCN-L-1844-13). If affirmed the zoning board’s denial of a bulk variance that would have zoned the property into inutility; that is, it would have rendered the property valueless and would thereby... Read More
Beach Erosion Caused by Jetties May Constitute a Taking
The latest in a long-running dispute between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and lake-front property owners in Michigan, whose beaches have allegedly been washed away because of jetties installed by the Army Corps long ago, is a ruling from the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the takings’ claims... Read More
NJ Supreme Court Adds Two Redevelopment Related Cases to Docket
The first case is In re: Petition for Referendum to Repeal Ordinance 2354-12 of the Tp. of West Orange. The certified question: “Was plaintiffs’ action challenging the municipal redevelopment ordinance time barred and, if not, was the ordinance invalid because of the municipality’s failure to submit an application for approval of the issuance of bonds to... Read More
