If you get this, you need to attend the 37th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, January 23-25, 2020, in Nashville.
And if you don’t get this, you need to attend more.
Register here. Continue Reading Space Still Available For ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Conference, Nashville Jan 23-25, 2020
Here are some of the stories and analysis about yesterday’s ruling by the Court of Federal Claims holding the federal government liable for a taking for the flooding following Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area:
As we wrote yesterday, this one isn’t over by a long shot, so stay tuned.Continue Reading Harvey Flood Takings Round-Up
We won’t go into the details of the Court of Federal Claims’ opinion and order in In re Upstream Addicks and Barker (Texas) Flood Control Reservoirs, No. 17-9001L (Dec. 17, 2019), since it is 46 single-spaced pages long. You can (and should) read the entire thing. But we shall highlight of a few of the highlights, since this is definitely a case to watch, especially as it progresses to the (inevitable) appeal to the Federal Circuit.
This is the case in which Texas owners whose property upstream of two government created and maintained dams was intentionally flooded by the Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Harvey sued the feds for just compensation for a taking. The government sought dismissal, but after a 10-day trial, the CFC held the government is “liable for a taking on a flowage easement on the [thirteen test] properties.” Slip op. at 3.
The court summarized
We were not as creative as our colleague Paul Henry (see below), but our Planning Co-Chair Joe Waldo and I wanted to personally invite you to join the “big guns” in our area of law at the 37th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference, January 23-25, 2020, in Nashville, Tennessee.
We’ve assembled an excellent faculty, and an agenda that covers the hot topics of the day. Go here to view the complete faculty list and agenda. Water rights, Knick, appraisal, ethics, civil rights, and a whole lot more in three days of the longest (and we think best) conference in our area of law. Also, for those new to the field, Andy Brigham and Jack Sperber are again leading their “Eminent Domain 101” program. A great way to learn the topic, or for experienced lawyers to get a quick refresher on the basics. Your registration
Here’s the video of (most, but not all of) the recent session featuring four lawprofs discussing “Originalism and Constitutional Property Rights” at the Federalist Society lawyers’ meeting.
Interesting debate, all about the text of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, the “original public meaning of the Takings and Due Process clauses, and all that heady stuff. Here were our major takeaways:
Continue Reading What Is The Original Public Meaning Of The Fifth (And Fourteenth) Amendments?
Registration underway, so come join us! Agenda full of hot topics in takings and appraisal law! The best national faculty! Renew friendships, and make new colleagues! And Nashville!
Download the brochure and make your plans for January. (Don’t wait, we’ve sold out the past three years.)Continue Reading Register Now! ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference (Nashville, Jan 23-25, 2020)
We’re in California, where we’re playing Lincoln Lawyer for a few days because in its infinite wisdom, the utility company has preemptively shut off power for one week due to the threat of wildfire inverse condemnation lawsuits. We’re actually playing Chevy Tahoe Lawyer, because we’re literally working out of a truck since that’s the only place with power, and we can at least drive to where there’s a (weak) connection to the developed world.
But court deadlines don’t wait for California’s absurdities, so we do what we need to do.
And that includes filing this amicus brief in a case we’ve been following, Campbell v. United States. That’s the case in which a Federal Circuit panel held that the Tucker Act’s six-year statute of limitations in takings claims against the United States starts to run upon the taking, and “the taking may occur before the effect
If you didn’t know takings, and just had to venture guess whether a court would ever conclude that the outlawing of “bump stocks” (a device which attaches to a semi-automatic rifle and makes it cycle really quickly so that it works somewhat like a fully-automatic rifle) was a taking, what would you say?
If you guessed no, you’d be right. And not because you read this blog every day and know that we’ve been down this path before with bump stocks. After all, some cases are not resolved in the mind, but in the heart and in the gut. The Court of Federal Claims’ decision in McCutchen v. United States, No. 18-1965C (Sep. 23, 2019), is one of them.
As we wrote about the earlier decision, as Justice Holmes famously noted, “‘the life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.’ And experience
Continue Reading One From The Gut: Outlawing “Bump Stocks” Not A Taking
You overwhelmingly asked for Nashville, and we’re bringing it to you!
Get ready, and hold your place now: here’s the list of programs and speakers for the 36th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference, to be held at the Downtown Nashville Hilton, January 23,- 25, 2020. Two-and-a-half days with top-notch national faculty (lawyers from both sides, judges, legal scholars, appraisers, relocation experts, and others).
Early registration and group rates are available now.
Here are just some of the programs:
