BLOG: Court Decisions
Prior Owner's Assent Does Not Defeat Inverse Condemnation Claim
Ciaglia v West Long Branch – Inverse Remedy Awarded by Appellate Division Yesterday, the Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court reversed a trial court that had dismissed a property owner’s lawsuit alleging that West Long Branch’s zoning regulations amounted to an inverse condemnation of an undersized lot created by a subdivision approved by the Planning Board... Read More
Long Branch Property Owners Suffer Setback
As reported today in the Asbury Park Press, four property owners in Long Branch’s infamous MTOTSA (Marine Terrace, Ocean Terrace, and Seaview Avenue) redevelopment area lost their most recent battle with the governing body. Two years ago, after the Appellate Division reversed a trial court decision that authorized the use of eminent domain to acquire private... Read More
Highlands Act Withstands Another Round of Legal Attacks
New Jersey appellate courts, in a series of published and unpublished opinions, recently addressed a variety of issues raised by the adoption of the Highlands Regional Master Plan (RMP) as required by the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act (the Highlands Act), N.J.S.A. 13:20-1 to -35. The Council, on July 17, 2008, adopted the RMP... Read More
Electricity Shocks Property Owners, But Not The Court
Shock Treatment Insufficient to Constitute Inverse Condemnation Yesterday, a New Jersey appellate court affirmed a jury verdict awarding $195,000 in “nuisance” damages to a Brick Township couple, but refused to reverse the trial court’s finding that an electric utility company’s stray “neutral to earth” voltage running rampant through their backyard was insufficient to amount to taking. Smith v. Jersey Central... Read More
Expert’s “Gut Feeling” on Costs Survives Dismissal Claim
An expert witness’s “gut feeling” about the cost of a plaintiff’s construction claim was sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss according to a recent New Jersey Appellate Division opinion. The holding in Nevins v. Toll Brothers, Inc., has the potential to affect similar motions in real estate valuation litigation such as eminent domain and real estate... Read More
South Carolina: Attorneys' Fees Can't Be "Taken"
Court Holds Appointed Attorneys’ Time is Compensable Property As our colleague from Hawaii, Robert Thomas, recently posted in his excellent blog, inversecondemnation.com, the South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that an attorney’s services constitute a property right which entitles the attorney to just compensation under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. An appointed attorney sought removal as appointed counsel... Read More
Asbury Park Settlement Rejected
City’s Misconstrued Settlement to Property Owners’ Not Enforceable A New Jersey appeals court recently held that a settlement allegedly reached with a property owner in the Asbury Park oceanfront redevelopment area was not enforceable. Asbury Partners, as the master redeveloper of Asbury Park’s waterfront redevelopment area, had requested that the City condemn certain properties which it was unable... Read More
Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies Torpedos Case
A New Jersey appellate court recently affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a civil rights/due process claim by a Somerset County property owner who alleged that it was denied the right to develop its acreage in Millstone Borough over the course of several years where efforts to develop the property were stalled. Rezem Family Associates... Read More
When a Private Beach is Really Not Private
The Texas Supreme Court has decided to reconsider its opinion in Severance v. Patterson, No. 09-0378 (Tx. Nov. 5, 2010), where that court was asked to decide “whether private beachfront properties on Galveston Island’s West Beach are impressed with a right of public use under Texas law without proof of an easement” when an avulsive event... Read More
Another Inverse Condemnation Complaint Bounced
A New Jersey appeals court recently affirmed the dismissal of an inverse condemnation complaint filed by a property owner against the Township of Mount Laurel, which asserted that a resolution adopted by the Township amounted to a total regulatory taking of his property. Carroll v. Township of Mt. Laurel, Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate... Read More
