2017

Bush’s trees had leafy spurge. “Hey,” said the Weed and Pest Control District, “we’ve got this herbicide stuff. How about we spray your trees free of charge? That will get rid of the leafy spurge.”

“Sure,” responded Bush.

Problem was the herbicide not only killed the leafy spurge. It (allegedly) killed some of the trees. The District’s investigation determined the spraying wasn’t negligent, but that the District hadn’t followed the herbicide label warnings. 

Bush filed a claim with the District, but received no response. Tired of waiting, it filed an inverse condemnation action in state court. 

The Wyoming Supreme Court agreed with the trial court that the inverse case wasn’t ripe.

In Bush Land Dev. Co. v. Crook County Weed & Pest Control Dist., No. S-16-0149 (Feb. 3, 2017), the court concluded Bush had an obligation to exhaust administrative remedies. A Wyoming statute, you see, provides that…

Continue Reading Wyoming: Property Owner Claiming Inverse Condemnation For Spraying/Killing His Trees Must Exhaust Admin Remedy First

When we previewed the 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference while we were getting buried in the snow a couple of weeks ago, we promised there would be better weather in San Diego than much of the country was then experiencing. As you can see, we delivered.

We — and by “we” I mean the faculty, the ALI-CLE staff, and the record number of attendees who came to San Diego — also delivered on a really great conference. See our posts on several of the presentations here, here, here, and here for a flavor.

We also announced that the date and location for the 2018 Conference has been set, and the hotel and site have been booked:

2018 ALI-CLE
Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference
Francis Marion Hotel
Charleston, South Carolina
January 25-27, 2018

Stay tuned for details. Send your ideas for…

Continue Reading 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Conference Wrap, 2018 Venue Announcement

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Our final day was anchored, as usual, by Pacific Legal Foundation’s Jim Burling, and property rights guru and advocate Michael Berger. Jim was his usual riveting self, and Michael supplied the insight to cases which only he can.

In case you are wondering, the above is the view from the dais, and no, I didn’t bring a Spam calendar with me, it was a gift from a thoughtful New Jersey colleague who knows that Hawaii people love Spam. I will reserve comment on whether I love Spam, and simply say thank you for the calendar. 

We finished the day strong with the National Forum, where audience members took the mic and shared their cases, issues, and results with the rest of us. 

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Continue Reading Links & Materials From Day 3 Of ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, San Diego

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Today, in addition to listening to sessions on Ethics, jury presentations, and expert witnesses, we presented (along with Dave Breemer of Pacific Legal Foundation) a session on “Takings and the Police Power.” Here are the links to the cases and articles I discussed in my portion of the presentation: 

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Continue Reading Links & Materials From Day 2 Of ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, San Diego

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Yeah, at the ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference now ongoing in San Diego, we talk severance damages, relocation benefits, highest and best use, pipelines, energy corridors, temporary construction easements, and blah, blah, blah.

But what really matters is when our St. Louis colleague Paul Henry (the bravest man we know) presents “Everything About Eminent Domain I Need To Know I Learned From Star Trek.” 

In a Starfleet uniform.

To a room full of the nation’s best eminent domain lawyers.

As one of the Planning Chairs, we told Paul that he could present this topic, but only if he did it in uniform. Well played, Captain!Continue Reading Star Trek: 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, San Diego

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Here are the links and references to the cases we spoke about today at our opening session on the national trends in eminent domain law at the 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference in San Diego. 

We again have a record attendance, and a good number of new attendees. If you aren’t here now, we’re sorry you didn’t make it. But fear not: ALI-CLE has already set the date and location for the 2018 Conference: save the date on your calendars now — January 25-27, 2018, Charleston, South Carolina, at the Francis Marion Hotel. 

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Continue Reading Day 1, 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, San Diego

HSBA 2017 Land Use Conference

To supplement your written materials for the 2017 Hawaii Land Use Conference, here are the decisions and other materials which we spoke about this morning at the 2017 Hawaii Land Use Conference:  

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Continue Reading Notes And Links From Today’s Hawaii Land Use Conference Session On Reg Takings

LittlePinkHouse

“Little Pink House,” the movie based on Jeff Benedict’s 2009 book, Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage, about the backstory to Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), will soon be in theaters. 

We know about the legal issues the case presented, but the book and the film center more around the human story. About this time last year, we spoke to Ted Balaker, one of the film’s producers, who gave us an inside look at the film (which was still being edited). Ever since, we’ve been eagerly anticipating the feature, which has some familiar faces in key roles. The film stars Catherine Keener (Capote) as Susette Kelo and Jeanne Tripplehorn (The Firm, Basic Instinct) as the head of the New London Redevelopment agency.

The movie will have its world premiere at the…

Continue Reading Little Pink House Movie Premiering

A question for those of you who do a lot of straight condemnation work: do you drive roads and highways with a slightly different outlook than the rest of the motoring public, especially on those roads where you represented a property owner defending against eminent domain? While others see signs and intersections and the like, is your focus instead on your owners’ (former) property, the construction easements, the appraisals, and the issues you argued in the taking case?

Call us weird, but that’s how we drive “our” roads.

Recently, we had that old deja vu because we were in the neighborhood of a road in which we represented two of the condemned. The courthouse in Kona on the Big Island is a stone’s throw from a County of Hawaii road project, only recently completed, that was one of our mostly hotly contested eminent domain cases, one that resulted in three…

Continue Reading Ode To A Road

The Sixth Circuit’s opinion in Lilly Investments v. City of Rochester, No. 15-2289 (Jan. 5, 2017) is not slated for publication, but its worth a read anyhow because it involves Williamson County ripeness, and the “final decision” rule. Here’s how the court summarized the case:

This case concerns Louis Leonor’s efforts to open a dental clinic in Rochester, Michigan. The clinic stands nearly complete, but in May 2013 Rochester issued a stop-work order preventing Leonor from finishing and operating the clinic, prompted by an expert’s finding that the clinic does not comply with the conditions of a city permit. That same expert found compliance a few months later after Leonor made corrective changes. Nonetheless, Rochester refused to lift the stop-work order or take an up-down vote on the project unless Leonor waived any legal claims and paid a $40,000 fee. Unwilling to comply with those conditions, Leonor filed a complaint…

Continue Reading 6th Circuit: City’s “War Of Attrition” Meant Regulatory Takings Claim Ripe For Federal Review