Environmental law

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Is climate change responsible for the severity of California’s recent spate of devastating wildfires? Several big utility companies are being sued or threatened with inverse condemnation for their roles, if any, in the damage. A story today in Climate Liability News (“California Utilities, Climate Change and Wildfires: A Liability Quagmire“) details the response by the utilities, which includes pointing the finger at climate change, petitioning the California PUC for rate hikes, and asking the California legislature for changes to the state’s inverse condemnation law:

The bill is a reaction to a debate over whether San Diego Gas & Electric could pass on the $379 million from the 2007 fires that it couldn’t cover through insurance. The commission denied the utility’s request last November because it said the company caused the fire with improper maintenance of power lines. The commission also said it wouldn’t automatically deny rate increases…

Continue Reading California Wildfires, Inverse Condemnation, And Climate Change

For those of you who have not recently attended the ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference (just wrapped in Charleston, planning Palm Springs 2019), here’s a small sampling of the kind of thing we do.

It’s U. Virginia lawprof Molly Brady talking about the U.S. Supreme Court’s regulatory takings decision in Murr v. Wisconsin, in the session she shared with John Groen (the Murrs’ Supreme Court counsel). A really informative session, and these clips only give a small taste. More here, from ALI-CLE, including links to the on-demand video sessions we recorded in Charleston.  

And it’s not too early to mark your calendars for Palm Springs, January 24-26, 2019. Stay tuned here for further details as they become available. 

Continue Reading Professor Molly Brady On Murr – Video Clips From The ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Conference

ZPLR front page

Here’s an article (“Murr v. Wisconsin: The Supreme Court Rewrites Property Rules in Multiple-Parcel Regulatory Takings Cases“), which we authored along with a colleague, published in February 2018’s Zoning and Planning Law Report, about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Murr v. Wisconsin, the case about the “larger parcel” in regulatory takings.

As you might predict, we concluded that the Murr majority’s analysis was vague, unsatisfying, and generally not helpful. Strong letter to follow!

Here’s a passage from the Introduction:

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-3 long-anticipated ruling in Murr v. Wisconsin, expected to resolve the “larger parcel” or “denominator” issue in regulatory takings cases, has instead created a test that neither property owners, lawyers, nor government officials can understand or rely on.

The majority opinion, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, addressed a long-standing question in regulatory takings law: when a claimant who owns more…

Continue Reading New Article: Murr And Other “Blurred Lines”

Sketch

Here’s the (draft) article from our poriton of the first panel at the 2017 Brigham-Kanner Conference, “Back to the Future of Land Use Regulation.” (Also posted on SSRN here.)

This is an expanded version of our talk (listen to the audio here) during the Conference during which the William and Mary Law School awarded U. Hawaii lawprof David Callies the Brigham-Kanner Prize. Our summary of the conference is posted here.

We were part of the panel entitled “The Future of Land Regulation and a Tribute to David Callies,” along with Professors Shelly Saxer and Jim Ely, and past B-K Prize winner Michael Berger. Professor Callies also delivered his opening remarks during this session.

This article has been submitted to the Brigham-Kanner Property Conference Journal which should be published later this year. 

Back to the Future of Land Use Regulation (draft Feb 11, 2018) Continue Reading Back to the Future of Land Use Regulation – Brigham-Kanner Article

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We’re on our third day at the 2018 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Conference in Charleston, SC, and as usual, we’re having our headline presentations by takings guru Michael Berger (pictured above), who is updating us on the most interesting and important cases of the past year, and Jim Burling, who will be answering the question, “Should We Rethink Regulatory Takings Law? The Takings Clause, Privileges and Immunities, and Due Process.”

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Here are links to the…

Continue Reading ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Conference, Third Day: Berger And Burling On Takings

Our upcoming American Law Institute-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference in Charleston, South Carolina has SOLD OUT our in-person registrations. 

We will have a record attendance (with over 100 first-time attendees) and the conference hotel has informed us that we can fit no more people in the meeting rooms. We cannot remember this happening before, but it tells us that we will have an energizing and exciting conference. 

Thank you to all of you who signed up and are coming or joining in online for the webcast — we’ll see you soon at the “four corners of the law.”

And if you delayed too long in registering, please don’t despair. You can still attend from home or the office because ALI has set up a live webcast of the sessions. Go here for more on how to sign up to attend by webcast.

And stay…

Continue Reading ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Conference – In-Person Registration SOLD OUT (But You Can Still Join By Live Webcast)

Here’s the first post-Murr cert petition (as far as we can tell), in a case we’ve been following. As we wrote in “The First Post-Murr Case? Fourth Circuit: No Taking Because Anti-Development Merger Regulations Actually Make Property Developable,” the Fourth Circuit concluded:

[T]he County’s regulations were run-of-the-mill zoning/land use ordinances, and thus were not a taking, nor violations of the related substantive due process and equal protection claims. Because the County had no obligation to extend sewer services to the plaintiff’s parcels, he had no property interest that was taken by the development prohibition. 

The court rejected the owner’s attempt to distinguish Murr. He pointed out that he purchased his property before the restrictive regulations were adopted, and not afterwards like the Murr children. See Murr, 137 S. Ct. at 1945 (“the “expectations . . . an acquirer of land must acknowledge legitimate restrictions affecting…

Continue Reading First Post-Murr Cert Petition

35th Annual Advanced Course

Logo_150pxEminent Domain and
Land Valuation Litigation

Live Program | Video Webcast | Video Webcast Segments

Thursday – Saturday, January 25 – 27, 2018
Francis Marion Hotel | Charleston, SC

Do not miss this popular conference! Intended for all eminent domain and land use practitioners, both experienced and those new to the practice. You can even customize the unique curriculum to work for you: freely go between the Advanced and 101 tracks, with additional tracks for Practice and Substantive law.

With a faculty of national experts who offer both condemnor and property owner perspectives, this is the big program, and the one you don’t want to miss.

Recognized and experienced professionals representing the diverse stakeholders in these cases will discuss the issues hitting your desk today or in the future, including:

  • Overlap of condemnation and regulatory takings: Murr and other blurred lines
  • Takings and damaging by flood

…
Continue Reading ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Conference – There’s Still Time To Join Us In Charleston

Keepout

What better way to bid farewell to 2017 than with a whopper case from the Hawaii Supreme Court? And we’re not exaggerating — this one is really big.  

Now you might think that given the amount of time this blog devotes to property interests and property rights, we’d be downright tickled when our home court — which may not be the friendliest court in the land for property owners and property rights — goes against expectations and actually recognizes a constitutional property right. A right that, as far as we can tell, no other court, state or federal, has ever recognized.

Despite the Hawaii Supreme Court’s recognition of a property right, however, we’re not at all on board, because In re Maui Electric Co., No. SCWC-15-0000640 (Dec. 14, 2017), concluded the Sierra Club possesses a constitutional property right in a “clean and healthful environment” entitling the organization to…

Continue Reading How Do You Exclude Someone From A Clean And Healthful Environment? Hawaii Supreme Court Rules The Public Has A Property Right In The Environment

Back in October, the William and Mary Law School awarded U. Hawaii lawprof David Callies the Brigham-Kanner Prize at a two-day conference in Williamsburg. Our summary of the conference is posted here.

We spoke at the conference, at the first panel entitled “The Future of Land Regulation and a Tribute to David Callies,” along with Professors Shelly Saxer and Jim Ely, and past B-K Prize winner Michael Berger. Of course, Professor Callies also delivered his opening remarks.

The law school has posted the audio from that session, which you can listen to here, or stream it above (via Soundcloud). 

We’re in the process of transforming our remarks into a short essay, to be submitted to the Brigham-Kanner Property Conference Journal if you want to wait for the expanded version. (Feb. 13, 2018 update: here’s the draft article.)Continue Reading Brigham-Kanner Podcast: “The Future Of Land Regulations And A Tribute To David Callies”