Property Law

RSS Link
The plaintiff owned property down in the land of the Delta Blues. The intersection of Highways 61 and 361 in Coahoma County, Mississippi. That’s a pic of the courthouse, taken a few years ago, by the way (yeah, we went there).  The owner tried several businesses there, first a blues club, then another club known as “Showtime,” and later a restaurant. Between Showtime and the restaurant, the County’s public works department struck and damaged…
What place do you think of when you hear the word “earthquake? Most likely California, we’re betting. And it’s also very likely that you didn’t think “Ohio.” Well, that’s probably what everyone involved in the Ohio Supreme Court case State ex rel. AWMS Water Solutions, LLC v. Mertz, No. 2019-0493 (Sep. 23, 2020) thought too. Until AWMS sought salt-water injection well permits from the State of Ohio, and “[t]he next day, a 2.7-magnitude earthquake…
Well, that didn’t take long: as we surmised back when the CDC first issued its order halting residential evictions until the end of the year due to COVID (see “How Can? U.S. DHS: National Eviction Moratorium (Roscoe Filburn Could Not Be Reached For Comment),” the order has resulted in a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia that alleges the order is unconstitutional. No takings claim (not the…
A very quick one today from the North Dakota Supreme Court. In Cass County Joint Water Resource District v. Aaland, No. 20200272 (Sep. 15, 2020), the court rejected a property owner’s request for a stay pending appeal of a trial court’s order allowing the district to enter the owner’s property “to conduct examinations, surveys, and mapping, including geomorphic examinations requiring installation of survey monuments.” The District had tried to negotiate an easement, but the…
Recently, we visited the site of a very well-known (and now very relevant) U.S. Supreme Court case. Why? Because we do things like that. See here, here, here, here, here, and here for some of our prior pilgrimages. We’ll have more on the visit later. but we thought we would try and make Friday a bit more interesting by not telling you the location, but seeing whether you can guess…
[Barista’s note: is it any coincidence that Constitution Day is just one day — a single day! — before National Cheeseburger Day? Two awesome days in a row a coincidence? We think not.] On the day we celebrate Constitution Day (or should we say Khaaaaan-stitution Day?) we have to admit that pretty much nothing beats One Named Kirk’s reading of the Preamble.  KIRK: This was not written for chiefs.Hear me! Hear this! Among my…
We’ve been meaning to write up the U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision in a case we’ve been following, Protect Our Parks, Inc v. Chicago Park District, No. 19-2308 (Aug. 231, 2020), but our Illinois colleague Mike Ryan was quicker on the draw. Rather than summarize Mike’s write up, we simply suggest you go to his firm’s blog and read “7th Circuit Rules Construction of the Obama Presidential Center Is Not A Taking …
As if to respond to a sibling federal court’s recent order upholding a covid-reaction shut down orders, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania’s opinion in County of Butler v. Wolf, No.2:20-cv-00677 (Sep. 14, 2020) reaches an entirely different conclusion: The fact is that the lockdowns imposed across the United States in early 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented in the history of our Commonwealth and our Country.…
The District Court’s bottom line in Lukes Catering Service, LLC v. Cuomo, No. 20-CV-1086 (Sep. 10, 2020)? The New York governor’s emergency orders aimed at coronavirus “imposing quarantines, mandating workforce reductions, closing schools, requiring face-coverings, and restricting activities of all types,” are not takings of the businesses of event, banquet, and catering services that have been shut down as a result. The specific emergency measure challenged was the order limiting gatherings to no more…