Eminent Domain | Condemnation

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13.EMDHI

Here are links to the cases and other materials (and more) we spoke about at today’s conference on Eminent Domain and Condemnation in Hawaii:

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Continue Reading Materials From Today’s Eminent Domain In Hawaii Conference

Check this out: according to a story in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle (“Pricey homes in Richmond’s eminent domain plan“), someone has figured out exactly which properties in Richmond, California are going to get “helped” by Mortgage Resolution Partners and the city in their plan to take underwater mortgages by eminent domain.

Seems like some of these properties are not exactly blighted (remember, the public use hook being used by MRP/Richmond is that the underwater properties create blight and are the source of the ills the city suffers). According to the story, included within the targeted properties are “at least two homes purchased for over $1 million as well as other high-end properties – a revelation that appears to undermine the city’s argument that the plan would combat blight.”

Oops.

MRP’s response? “We don’t discriminate against anyone in this program” said Steven Gluckstern, chairman. Seems like both the rich…

Continue Reading Berman. Poletown. Kelo. Richmond. When Will They Ever Learn?

Your mission Dan, should you decide to accept it, is to review the competing op-eds about Mortgage Resolution Partners-backed plan for municipalities to take underwater mortgages by eminent domain, and decide which ones are good, and which ones are full of it. 

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Continue Reading Mortgage Taking Tuesday – Mission: Impossible?

EM Hauulaeminent_domain_abuse

Here’s the Complaint, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Honolulu in which a windward Oahu property owner challenges the City and County of Honolulu’s removal of her protest signs on her property. 

The rub? She’s protesting the City’s condemnation of her property back in 2010. Her complaint alleges that the city “neither owns, manages nor maintains” the property, and that the owner continues to pay both property taxes and for the maintenance of the land. It also alleges there are other signs on nearby property with other messages that have not been touched. This seems similar to other cases in which property owners claim that the government is retaliating against them for their anti-eminent domain messages.

The complaint alleges that a few months ago, the City went on the property and posted a “removal notice” under the City’s newly-adopted “Bill 54,” an ordinance allowing the City to seize…

Continue Reading New Federal Court Complaint Challenges Honolulu Grabbing Anti-Eminent Domain Signs Under “Stored Property” Ordinance

Here is a deeper look at the two lawsuits filed lastweek in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against the City ofRichmond, California, for the city’s Mortgage Resolution Partners-backed plan to condemn underwater mortgages, specifically those held by out-of-state securitizedbonds, residential mortgage-backed securitization (RMBS) trusts. The first Complaint was brought by Wells Fargo and a number of mortgage holders onbehalf of their trusts (“Wells Fargo” suit). The other, filed concurrently, was brought Wednesday bythe Bank of New York Mellon for its trusts(“Bank of NYM suit”).

My Damon Key colleague Bethany C.K. Ace has digested the complaints and provides us with her thoughts on the cases below. She joined me and Mark M. Murakami as the co-author of Recent Developments in Eminent Domain: Public Use, which is forthcoming in the next edition of the Urban Lawyer.

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More On The Two Federal Lawsuits Challenging The Underwater Mortgage Taking Scheme…

Continue Reading Guest Post: More On The Two Federal Lawsuits Challenging The Underwater Mortgage Taking Scheme

Update: More thoughts from Rick Rayl and Brad Kuhn (California Eminent Domain Report) here.

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Here’s a decision at the intersection of eminent domain valuation and unconstitutional exactions from the California Court of Appeal (Fourth District). In City of Perris v. Stamper, No. E053395 (Aug. 9, 2013) the court held that in a condemnation action, “issues surrounding the dedication requirement are essential to the determination of ‘just compensation’ and therefore must be “ascertained by a jury.'” Slip op. at 1.

First, some background. The city condemned a portion of Stamper’s industrially-zoned vacant land in order to realign and widen an adjacent road. Its deposit was based on the use of the land for agricultural purposes. But wait you say, the land was zoned industrial and even though it was vacant, when calculating compensaton, land is valued at its highest and best use. But get a load…

Continue Reading Cal App: Nollan/Dolan Issues Impacting Eminent Domain Valuation Are Decided By The Jury

Today’s the first day of the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, so we haven’t had time to do more than scan the Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, filed yesterday in San Francisco federal court, challenging the plans of Mortgage Resolution Partners and the City of Richmond, California to take underwater mortgages by eminent domain.

We’ll have more, but here are two initial reports:

Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, The Bank of New York Mellon v. City of Richmond, No. 13-36…


Continue Reading The Other Shoe Drops: Banks Sue Richmond, California Over Mortgage Eminent Domain Scheme

Here’s the latest from the New Jersey Supreme Court on the power of railroads to take property, and when land is already being put to a “prior public use” and thus immune from being taken.

In Norfolk Southern Railway Co. v. Intermodal Properties, LLC, No. A-117-11 (Aug. 6, 2013), the court held that the railroad had the power to condemn an adjacent parcel already used as a parking facility to expand its rail facility to, among other benefits, provide more parking space. It’s a long opinion (42 pages) so we won’t go into it in great detail, so here’s the short version.

The court held that the statutory requirement that a railroad’s condemnation be “not incompatible with the public interest” was met. Although the taking was for parking and the property taken was already being used for parking by its owner, this did not qualify as a prior public…

Continue Reading New Jersey Explains Prior Public Use And Railroad Takings

From The Mayor (G): we’re “[t]aking these troubled loans off the hands of the [predatory] banks … and we’re paying them fair market value.” The video just gives you a whole lot of confidence that they know what they’re doing, does’t it?

The elephant in the room Her Honor doesn’t address about one big reason why Richmond has “destabilized neighborhoods” and isn’t enjoying the high prices so typical of other San Francisco Bay Area housing makerts is the horrible crime problem. If there’s one thing Richmond leads the way on — besides novel eminent domain usage that is — it’s crime: the city is consistently at the top of lists of the nation’s most violent municipalities. By all accounts, Richmond should be a housing paradise: across the Bay from prosperous Marin County, it’s outside the fog belt and has wonderful weather most of the time, and has miles of Bay…

Continue Reading Video: Richmond’s Mayor On Eminent Domain To Take Mortgages

That story about Richmond, California starting down the path of using eminent domain to take underwater mortgages is taking on a life of its own. Here’s the latest.

Before we bombard you with links to the most recent commentary and stories, here’s some backstory. Remember how we said this was taking on an “Occupy” flavor and seemed as much fueled by a let’s-get-those-greedy-bum-bankers vibe as by thoughful economics and a careful use of eminent domain? Well, a little digging showed that wasn’t far off. It seems that lawprof Robert Hockett, the guy who came up with this scheme (calling it a plan that “pays Paul and robs no one”) is a Founding Board member of something called the “Occupy Money Cooperative,” which touts itself as a “revolution,” “a cooperative company that offers low-cost, transparent, high quality financial services to the 99%.” (ps: you forgot “sustainable”). Hockett “has…

Continue Reading Mortgage Monday