2008

If my office ever takes another Fifth Amendment case up to the U.S. Supreme Court (my Damon Key colleagues Charlie Bocken and Diane Hastert argued and won Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U.S. 164 (1979)), we’re going to do whatever we can to avoid filing it so it gets considered on June 23. 

Today’s the third anniversary of Kelo v. City of New London, and also the day the Court denied review to a case which is the logical follow-up to Kelo, Goldstein v. Pataki.

[A follow up from a reader’s comment: June 23 is “Kelo Day” – read more here.]

Continue Reading Note to Self: Avoid June 23 at the Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court today denied review to three cases we’ve been following:

  • Goldstein v. Pataki, No. 07-1247 (petition for cert. filed Mar. 31, 2008) (pleading pretext post-Kelo) – Justice Alito would have granted the petition.  Justice Alito had not been appointed to the Court at the time of Kelo, so this may signal another vote for property owners if this issue ever makes it back up.

Here’s the Order. Continue Reading Cert Denied in Three Cases

In “Blogs are not just for venting anymore,” Erika Engle’s “TheBuzz” column features four Damon Key attorneys who blog about the law: Mark Murakami, Robert Harris, Tred Eyerly, and me.  Our firm is pretty “bloggish,” and between the four of us, we publish three law blogs.  In addition to the blog you are now reading, we produce:

Read the Star-Bulletin story, follow the links above, or download our firm’s latest Legal Alert which contains a full profile of each blog and our lawyer-authors. 
Continue Reading Honolulu Star-Bulletin Features Damon Key Law Blogs

The speed of information on the internet sure is fast.  I was preparing a post summarizing the recent Court of Federal Claims decision in Estate of Hage v. United States,No. 91-1470L (May 6, 2008), which awarded Nevadaproperty owners several million dollars in just compensation for the taking of theirvested water rights by the federal government, but Professor Gideon Kanner and the Real Estate and Construction Law Blog both beat me to the punch.

Kanner’s commentary on the case, “Posthumous Victory for Hage” is posted here. “Federal Claims Court Awards $4.2M to Ranchers’ Estate for Taking of Water Rights” is posted here.

Read the CFC’s opinion here.Continue Reading Court of Federal Claims Awards Compensation for Taking of Vested Water Rights

The property owner has filed a Petition for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc in AmeriSource Corp. v. United States,No. 07-1521 (Fed. Cir. May 1, 2008). 

In that case, the Federal Circuit held that when an innocent party’sproperty is seized for use in a criminal prosecution but never used as evidence, no FifthAmendment taking has occurred even though the property was rendered valueless during the time the government possessed it.  The government seized a largequantity of legal prescription drugs in its investigationof a pharmacy but never used the drugs as evidence.  Although the drugs were eventually returned to the owner, they had expired in the interim.

The Federal Circuit agreed with the government’s argument that it would be impractical to hamper prosecutorial efforts by a requirement that the owner of the evidence must be compensated.  Yes, paying for property seized as evidence may force the government to think…

Continue Reading Federal Circuit En Banc Petition in AmeriSource

Several items today with a common theme of eminent domain and public use –

  • PropertyProf Blog posts a link to Professor Richard Epstein’s latest article, “Public Use in a Post-Kelo World.”  I agree with Professor Barros’ recommendation: “Given the author, obviously a must-read for anyone interested in public use issues.”
  • The Honolulu Advertiser’s Sean Hao details the issues when takings for Honolulu’s proposed +$4B rail transit project runs into a unique “old Hawaii” neighborhood in “Pearl City’s Banana Patch at risk.”  A neighborhood without city water, street lights, or sidewalks (but a community nonetheless) is slated for removal for a “park and ride.”

…
Continue Reading Public Use/Kelo Round Up

Kauaisprings2 Yesterday, we filed the Reply Brief in Kauai Springs‘ appeal from the January 2007 decision by the Kauai Planning Commission to deny three zoning permits to the small, Kauai-family-owned water bottling company.

For more information about the case, here are some links to earlier media coverage:

  • A May 2006 story about the case from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin
  • A storyfrom the Kauai newspaper about the TRO that halted the County’s attemptto shut the business down while the appeal was being considered.
  • Another story about the preliminary injunction that allowed Kauai Springs to stay open.

The Opening Brief is posted here.  The Kauai Planning Commission’s Answering Brief is posted here. Continue Reading PING: Private servants VisaURL: http://vitagate.itn.liu.se/GAV/booklets/wiki/index.php?title=Discovering-The-Ideal-Immigration-Immigration-Lawyer—Items-To-Bear-in-mindIP: 220.135.129.22BLOG NAME: Private servants VisaDATE: 02/03/2013 10:27:35 PMinversecondemnation.com: Kauai Springs Zoning Permit Appeal: Reply Brief

Today my Damon Key colleagues Mark Murakami, Christi-Anne Kudo Chock, and I filed for the Ocean Tourism Coalition a brief amicus curiae (88kb pdf) in the US Supreme Court supporting the petition for writ of certiorari filed in UFO Chuting of Hawaii, Inc. v. Smith, No. 07-1427 (petition for cert. filed May 12, 2008). 

The petition seeks review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in UFO Chuting of Hawaii, Inc. v Smith, 508 F.3d 1189 (9th Cir. 2007), a case I blogged about here.  In UFO Chuting, the Ninth Circuit held:

We hold that UFO’s right to operate vesselsunder its federal maritime coasting licenses does not preempt Hawaiilaw prohibiting parasailing off the coast of Maui during limitedportions of the year to protect mating humpback whales.

Read the entire opinion here.  The case is a challenge to the State of Hawaii’s regulations restricting parasailing in waters…

Continue Reading Amicus Brief: A State May Not Ban Navigation For Five Months Without Interfering With Federal Navigation Rights

A little shameless self-promotion, as well as well-deserved recognition for my fellow Damon Key law bloggers Mark Murakami, Robert Harris and Tred Eyerly:  Ryan Ozawa has posted a summary of our firm’s adventures in law blogging on his Hawaii Blog in the post “Hawaii Firm Spotlights Legal Blogs” —

Firm director Thomas is one of Hawaii’s first law bloggers, and writes at inversecondemnation.com on land use law, eminent domain, and property rights. Fellow director Murakami writes about maritime and ocean law at hawaiioceanlaw.com. And associates Harris and Eyerly blog at insurancelawhawaii.com about… well, you know.

In its quarterly newsletter Legal Alert, the firm explainedthat a law blog is where “an attorney posts articles about his or herarea of expertise and interest — these articles may provide in-depthsummaries and analysis of recent cases or legislation, or may containpractical insight and commentary.”

. . .

Noting…

Continue Reading Hawaii Blog: Hawaii Firm Spotlights Legal Blogs