July 2015

The Solicitor General of South Carolina has issued this opinion letter, answering the following three questions about a state statute which “purports to confer all rights, powers, and privileges given to telegraph and telephone companies” to pipeline companies:

  • Since S.C. Code § 58-7-10 et seq. appears to mainly concern waterworks, sewage disposal, and natural gas lines, do its provisions also apply to oil and gasoline pipelines and extend to them the public power of eminent domain?

  • If your answer to Question 1 is “yes,” then why isn’t an extension of eminent domain power to a private, for-profit pipeline company unconstitutional under S.C. Article 1, § 13(A)?

  • If an oil and gas pipeline company has eminent domain authority, and this authority is not unconstitutional, must an oil or gasoline pipeline company follow all regulations, rules, legal requirements, or other policies or procedures that are applicable to telephone and telegraph companies

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Continue Reading SC AG: Oil And Gas Pipelines Probably Can’t Exercise Eminent Domain Like Telephone Companies

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The Land Use Institute, a program that for many years has been planned by co-chairs Frank Schnidman and Gideon Kanner, has found a new home with the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law as the main sponsor. It also has a new Planning co-chair, Dean Patty Salkin of Touro Law School, who has stepped in for Professor Kanner.

This program is designed for attorneys, professional planners, and government officials involved in land use planning, zoning, permitting, property development, conservation and environmental protection, and related litigation. It not only addresses and analyzes the state-of-the-art efforts by government to manage land use and development, but also presents the key issues faced by property owners and developers in obtaining necessary governmental approvals.

This year, the one-day program is being held in conjunction with the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago. It will be held on Thursday, July 30, 2015…

Continue Reading Land Use Institute: Planning, Regulation, Litigation, Eminent Domain, and Compensation – 31st Annual Conference, Chicago, July 30, 2015

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Here’s a case in which the court ruled there wasn’t a taking, but it could be argued that the property owners won. How so? Because this case pitted the property rights of railroads against the property rights of the owners over whose land the rail lines run.

The U.S. Court of Appeals asked the Louisiana Supreme Court to answer this certified question:

Whether the application of LA. REV. STAT. § 48:394 to any of the properties in this case amounts to an unconstitutional taking of private property without a public purpose, in violation of Article I, Section 4 of the Louisiana Constitution.

In Faulk v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., No. 2014-CQ-1598 (June 30, 2015), the Supreme Court answered no.  

The case arose in 2007 after the railroad planned to close 100-year old private crossings over its tracks, which the property owners asserted disrupted their farming operations and their…

Continue Reading Takings Claim Rejected, But Property Owners Win In Louisiana: Statute Limiting Closing Of Private Railroad Crossing Isn’t A Taking Under State Constitution

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The hotel reservations link for the 2016 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation and Condemnation 101 Conference is now live.

Reserve your hotel room now, via this link to ensure that you have a spot in the conference hotel. [note: link updated 7/8/2015]

We’re still working on the agenda and faculty, but here are the details thus far:

Date: January 28-30, 2016 (Thursday – Saturday)

Location: Hotel Van Zandt, Austin Texas

The Hotel Van Zandt is a new hotel (not even opened as of the date of this post), but our Austin sources tell us that it’s centrally located, close to everything that Austin is known for. More about the annual conferences — the premiere CLE programming on the subject, in our opinion — here. 

Stay tuned for more information. We’ll continue to keep you posted, and when the registration page at ALI-CLE is up and ready to…

Continue Reading 2016 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Conference, Austin: Hotel Now Taking Reservations