Property Law

RSS Link
Like a lot of jurisdictions, Kentucky allows (or requires upon demand) the jury to view property being taken by eminent domain. In Kentucky, it’s a matter of statute, which requires the court to allow a jury view upon the demand of any party, unless “unusual or extreme circumstances” are present. In Comm’w of Kentucky v. PTL Warehousing, LLC, No. 2019-CA-388-MR (Apr. 2, 2021), the trial court did not approve of the condemnor’s request that…
Here are the amici briefs supporting the property owner’s cert petition in a case we’ve been following for a long time, Eychaner v. City of Chicago, No. 20-1214. This is the one in which the Illinois courts concluded that Chicago’s desire to prevent “future blight” is enough of a public use to support the taking of private property. Yes, you read that right: future blight. Liberty Justice Center (planners are not very good…
Here’s one we’ve been waiting to drop. In San Jacinto River Authority v. Medina, Nos. 19-0400, 19-0402 (Apr. 16, 2021), the Texas Supreme Court held that “statutory takings” under the Texas Government Code include both physical invasion takings as well as regulatory takings. This case stems from flooding allegedly caused in part by the San Jacinto River Authority’s release of water in response to Hurricane Harvey. The property owners whose land was flooded sued,…
Come at me!(Bolick, J., dissenting) We have a Wexis alert for “Kelo,” because that’s one of the ways we keep up on the latest developments in this area. That alert doesn’t ping all that often, so we were all excited when yesterday, we received an alert notifying us of the Arizona Supreme Court’s opinion in State of Arizona v. City of Tucson, No. CV-20-0244-SA (Apr. 14, 2021)? Was it a case of government-to-government takings?…
If you’re wondering what to do if, during the course of an eminent domain lawsuit or project, a condemnor (or anyone else with the power of eminent domain) invades, occupies, or affects more property than it acknowledges, check out the Indiana Court of Appeals’ opinion in Lake County v. House, No. 20A-PL-1675 (Apr. 14, 2021). Short story: a part of a larger project, the county brought an eminent domain action seeking a partial take…
We’ve been meaning to post this one for a while, and it appears our procrastination has paid off: the Court has asked for a response. Normally, we’d summarize the case and the issues, but in this instance, the cert petition‘s Question Presented lays it all out: Petitioner, Next Energy, LLC, commenced acquiring blocks of five-year oil leases in 2011 to drill high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (horizontal hydraulic fracturing) wells to recover oil…
Toby Prince BrighamNovember 24, 1934 – March 19, 2021 We haven’t posted in a few days, because we’ve been busy with a sad but important task – traveling to Miami to pay our respects to a true giant in the field of property rights and eminent domain, Toby Prince Brigham. After a long and legendary life and career, Toby left us last month. The accolades you know: constitutional lawyer, founder of Owners’ Counsel of America,…
Takings! Armstrong! Emergencies! Mahon! Jacobson! Add lawprof Shelley Ross Saxer’s latest article (forthcoming in the University of Hawaii Law Review), “Necessity Exceptions to Takings” to your reading list. Get it at SSRN here. Rather than summarize it for you, we’ll just post the abstract: The doctrine of necessity has strong roots in the common law of tort and property going back hundreds of years. In the United States the doctrine has been applied in…