Constitution "Alive and Well" in Virginia
The Virginia DOT will be forced to pay for what it took from farmer Ed Jennings. In a rare “inverse condemnation” (where a property owner sues government to compensate for a taking), the judge found that run-off from a bridge over the property owner’s land, and mounds of construction debris deposited on the land were...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Temporary "Takings" Judgment Remanded
The Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court recently reversed a trial court decision, which had awarded a property owner over a million dollars in damages allegedly caused by an NJDOT road-widening project that interfered with plaintiff’s high-end used car business for over 4 years. Penn Auto Sales of Rte 21, Inc. v. Dep’t of Transportation (Docket...
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Anthony F. DellaPelle participates as a faculty member at the National Eminent Domain conference
On February 18, 2011, McKirdy & Riskin’s Anthony F. DellaPelle participated as a member of the faculty on two separate panels at the ALI-ABA annual conference on eminent domain law in Coral Gables, Florida. Mr. Della Pelle first served as a member of a panel entitled “The ‘Social’ Lawyer: New Media Strategies for Marketing Your...
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"Bizarre" Condemnation Case Resolved — Family Can Seek Payment for Avalon Beach Property
New Jersey Supreme Court Permits Filing of Inverse Condemnation in 40 Year Old Dune “Taking” Case The New Jersey Supreme Court decided earlier this week that Edward and Nancy Klumpp could pursue an inverse condemnation action decades after the Borough of Avalon constructed a dune on their property following a 1962 Nor’easter which destroyed their beachfront...
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"Bizarre" Condemnation Case Involving 40-Year Old Dune "Taking" Argued Before New Jersey Supreme Court
The New Jersey Supreme Court heard oral arguments on March 22, 2010, after a trial judge and appeals court found Avalon’s adoption of shore-protection regulations resulted in an inverse condemnation of beach property. A 1962 Nor’easter leveled a home owned by Edward and Nancy Klummp, and Avalon constructed dunes on the property before a house...
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NJ Supreme Court Agrees to Hear "Bizarre" Condemnation Case
The New Jersey Supreme Court recently granted a petition for certification filed by the property owners who alleged unsuccessfully before the Law Division, and the Appellate Division, that the municipality was required by law to provide them access to “their property.” The case has been described by Henry Gottlieb of the New Jersey Law Journal...
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NJ Supreme Court upholds Highlands Act
The New Jersey Supreme Court recently held that an inverse condemnation did not occur in a takings case involving the application of the New Jersey Highlands Act with respect to a development tract owned by OFP, LLC in Morris County. According to the Supreme Court, which upheld an earlier opinion by the Appellate Division of the New...
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