Just Compensation | Appraisal

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Picture 1: how normal people see pie.

Picture 2: how you see pie if you’re coming to the
ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Conference. 

If you get the above, you probably are already set to join us next week for the 37th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference in Nashville. (If not, shame on you!).

And having just reviewed the latest registration list, I can report that we have an all-time record attendance.  But there’s still room for those of you still not committed. Register here. Don’t miss out. There will be pie. Continue Reading Record Attendance (But There’s Still Time For You Last-Minute Filers) At Nashville ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Conference

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If there’s one downside to the law school experience from the teacher’s side of the lectern, it’s grading. Especially at a law school like William and Mary that has a pretty strict mandatory curve.

In an upper-division course like “Eminent Domain and Property Rights Law,” where we’re dealing with some very high-level stuff and the quality of the students is uniformly excellent, that makes for some hard choices at this time of year. But we’ve wrapped up grading, and have submitted the official scores.

Although I cannot share with you all the papers themselves, I don’t think my students would mind if I give you a sampling of the topics and titles, just so you can see how the next generation of lawyers is thinking about this area of law: 

  • One Man’s Castle is Another Man’s Parking Lot: A Homeowner’s Theory of Eminent Domain
  • Native Title: Concept and

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Continue Reading The Circle Is Now Complete: A Sampling Of Final Paper Topics From William and Mary Law’s Eminent Domain & Property Rights Course

One does not simply walk to nashville

You can also fly, drive, or bike to the upcoming 37th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference. in Nashville. Limited space still available, so don’t delay further and register now. We’re on track to record attendance, so you don’t want to miss the best nationally-focused three-day program on our area of law.

Takings, Knick, compensation, appraisals … and a bit of fun thrown in. We have many new attendees, and many new speakers, too.  Continue Reading (Nearly) Last Chance To Join Us In Nashville For ALI-CLE’s Eminent Domain Conference

The holding of the Indiana Court of Appeals in City of Kokomo v. Estate of Newton, No. 19A-PL-1321 (Dec. 18, 2019) is deceptively simple: if a party does not own a formal interest in the property being taken, evidence of the damages which it incurred as a result of the condemnation isn’t relevant to the calculation of just compensation. 

That’s workable as a black-letter rule, we suppose. But what about the very common situation where, due to circumstances, someone with an obvious stake in property being taken had not formalized that interest prior to the condemnation? 

That appears to have been the situation in Newton, where the two condemned properties had been owned by real-party-in-interest (Bradley Newton)’s mother at the time of her death. The properties were used by a company she also owned, Kokomo Glass. When she died, her son Wesley became the owner of the two parcels…

Continue Reading If You Want To Claim An Interest In A Condemnation Award, Formalize The Interest

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This time last week, we were sitting in the North Carolina Supreme Court’s (very beautiful) courtroom, above, having just observed oral arguments in a case we’ve been following for quite a while, Chappell v. NCDOT, No. 51PA19 (docket here). 

This case is the follow up (after remand) of the N.C. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Kirby v. North Carolina Dep’t of Transportation, No 56PA14-2 (June 10, 2016), in which the court held that the “Map Act,” a statute by which DOT designated vast swaths of property for future highway acquisition, was a taking because the Act prohibited development and use of designated properties in the interim. The court concluded “[t]hese restraints, coupled with their indefinite nature, constitute a taking of plaintiffs’ elemental property rights by eminent domain.” The court remanded the case for a parcel-by-parcel determination of just compensation. On remand, the trial court concluded …

Continue Reading NC Supreme Court Considers Just Compensation For Formerly Indefinite–But Now Temporary–“Map Act” Takings

Here’s one where you have to stop and pause and ask “why?” Because most of the time, you’d think that an offer to the property owner made by DOT that included more compensation than DOT’s own appraisal recognized would be a good thing.

Apparently not here: DOT’s appraiser opined that the owner incurred no severance damages from the partial take, and therefore did not include any in the appraisal. His letter appraised compensation for the property taken at $79k. But DOT offered the owner more, a total of $133k. Its initial offer identified $79k for the land, about $1k for “easement rights,” and the balance for “loss of various site improvements” (as the court phrased it. But “[n]otably, the initial offer letter did not identify severance damages as a line item for compensation.” 

When the parties could not agree on a voluntary acquisition, and in anticipation of condemnation, DOT went back…

Continue Reading Owner Objects To Being Offered *More* Compensation: DOT’s Offer Invalid Because It Included Severance Damages The Appraisal Omitted

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…

Continue Reading Don’t Miss Out: Join The “Big Guns” And Secure Your Space At ALI-CLE’s Upcoming Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (Jan 23-25, 2020, Nashville)

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:

  • Professor Somin argued that decisions like Kelo and Berman are not consistent with the original public meaning of the terms of the Takings Clause. 
  • Professor Merrill asserted there’s a good textualist argument that the Public Use Clause is not a limitation on the government’s power to take. If there’s a private benefit taking, that is best handled by other parts of the Constitution (such as due process).
  • Also, from Prof. Merrill: between Kelo and the backlash, the backlash was the “true constitutional moment.”
  • Professor Lazarus thought the regulatory

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Continue Reading What Is The Original Public Meaning Of The Fifth (And Fourteenth) Amendments?