We really want you there…

One (nearly) last reminder that there’s still time to register for your space at the 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, February 1-4, 2023, in Austin. In the past several years, we have sold out due to the conference room capacity and the conference hotel block. But there’s still space, although we are nearly full. So register now – don’t delay any further! 

Here’s the brochure with the complete agenda, schedule, and faculty listing. But to tempt you, here are some of the highlights of the program:

  • Everything Old is New Again: Why Today’s Practitioners Need to Understand the Original Meaning of the Takings and Just Compensation Clauses
  • When the SWAT Team Comes (No) Knocking: Police Power Takings
  • Private Utility Takeovers – Lessons From a 67 Day Trial

  • “Contraband”: How Property Rights Helped Pave the Way for Civil Rights

  • Valuation


Continue Reading (Nearly) Last Call: There’s Still Time To Join Us For The 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Feb 1-4, Austin

Due to our 808 roots, we’ve been fielding a lot of questions related to the ongoing eruption of Mauna Loa on the Big Island.

It’s big, it’s spectacular (see video above), and (for us) it’s law.

The questions (who owns “accreted” lava?, how does the NPS let the public out to see this?, what uses can be made of property covered by lava?) made us realize that we had addressed some of those issues in prior posts. So we’re reposting:

Hope you find useful these things that make Hawaii property law pretty interesting at times.Continue Reading Law Of The Lava – Who Owns New “Accreted” Land? (And Other Questions)

Here it is, the official agenda and program for the 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, February 2-4, 2023 (with a special event the evening of Wednesday, February 1, 2023 to entice you to arrive early).

Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 13-35-13 ALI CLE PA NY VA TX FL Continuing Legal Education

Here’s the brochure with the complete agenda, schedule, and faculty listing. But to tempt you, here are some of the highlights of the program:

  • Everything Old is New Again: Why Today’s Practitioners Need to Understand the Original Meaning of the Takings and Just Compensation Clauses
  • Private Utility Takeovers – Lessons From a 67 Day Trial

  • Valuation Issues When Billboards and Signs are Condemned

  • Setting Client Expectations and Identifying Red Flags

  • Developing Property Right Issues in Texas – Questions and Answers from the Bench: A View From the Bench (with Texas Supreme Court Justice Jimmy Blacklock)

  • Eminent Domain and Regulatory Takings Updates: Important Decisions You Need to Know

  • Ethics:


Continue Reading Here’s The Program For The 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Feb 1-4, 2023, Austin

Well, that was quick. As we noted here, we recently argued a case in the Ninth Circuit (October 20, 2022) about whether a regulatory takings claim is ripe

Not long after we posted the argument recording, the Ninth Circuit panel issued a short memorandum opinion rejecting our arguments wholesale (November 1, 2022).

So earlier this week, we asked the entire Ninth Circuit to take a look. Here’s our en banc petition.

We’ll leave it to you to read it and see why we think this one is ripe.

Appellants’ Petition for Rehearing En Banc, Ralston v. San Mateo Cnty., No 21-16489 (9th Cir. Nov. 15, 2022…

Continue Reading Let’s Take A Deeper Look At Takings Ripeness, Ninth Circuit

Screenshot 2022-05-02 at 11-51-57 Display event - 2022 Hawaii Land Use Law Conference (LIVE)

It’s back! After a hiatus on the in-person program, the bi-annual Hawaii Land Use Conference is back in-person (see here for a sample of one of our prior presentations at this conference).

May 25 and 26, 2022, downtown Honolulu.

The full agenda and speaker list has not yet been published, but here’s a summary of the program:

Sponsored by the Hawaii State Bar Association and the Real Property and Financial Services Section. Coordinated by David Callies and Benjamin Kudo, his 2-day conference is a must attend for any attorney or professional whose practice involves land use and development. Distinguished land-use practitioners, scholars, planners, and regulators from Hawaii and the Mainland will discuss timely and relevant issues, including:

• Takings 

• Transit Oriented Development (TOD) 

• Seawalls and Shoreline Access 

• Climate Change 

• Affordable/Workforce Housing 

• Ethical Considerations for Real Property Practitioners and Other Professionals

We’ll be speaking during

Continue Reading Hawaii Land Use Law Conference, May 25-26, 2022, Honolulu – Join Us!

PASH symposium

Back in February, we were honored to be part of the University of Hawaii Law Review’s symposium “25 Years of PASH,” a retrospective of one of the Hawaii Supreme Court’s most famous (or infamous) decisions, Pub. Access Shoreline Haw. v. Haw. Cnty. Plan. Comm’n, 79 Haw. 425, 903 P.2d 1246 (1993), cert. denied sub nom., Nansay Haw. v. Pub. Access Shoreline Haw., 517 U.S. 1163 (1996) (PASH).

At the conference, we spoke on the panel about “PASH and the Changing Coastal Environment” (see video here at the 2:02:25 mark if you want to watch our panel’s summations). The Law Review has now published the symposium, and here’s our contribution, Takings PASH and the Changing Coastal Environment, 43 U. Haw. L. Rev. 525 (2021).

For those of you not totally tuned in, in the PASH case the Hawaii Supreme Court

Continue Reading New Article: “Takings, PASH, and the Changing Coastal Environment,” 43 U. Haw. L. Rev. 525 (2021)

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following (one in which we guessed from the beginning was headed where it is today).

The Zitos claim that their property was taken without compensation. They sued for compensation in federal court. Knick tells us that this is okay, right? Well, the problem for the Zitos is that they claim the State of North Carolina did the taking. And you know what that means: 11th Amendment “immunity.” You can’t sue a State for money in federal court without its consent. And North Carolina didn’t consent.

The District Court dismissed. It concluded that it might have allowed the takings claim for compensation to proceed in federal court except that the Fourth Circuit already concluded that a federal court is barred from considering a takings claim against a state if state law recognizes a takings claim. See Hutto v. South Carolina Retirement System

Continue Reading New Cert Petition: The Self-Executing Fifth Amendment Abrogates 11th Amendment Immunity

On one hand, the U.S. Court of Appeals’ opinion in Buending v. Town of Redington Beach, No. 20-11354 (Aug. 20, 2021) is not a big deal, at least in terms of the issue in the case: did the Town take the plaintiffs’ private beach property when it adopted an ordinance allowing the public to use it? Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. The opinion simply vacates the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the property owners because there are disputed issues of fact on the Town’s affirmative defense of customary use. The district court concluded the Town could not raise the customary use defense.

The Eleventh Circuit, however, held that the Town was not precluded from raising the defense that the property the plaintiffs claimed was exclusively private was also subject to the public’s use under longstanding custom, and that the Town’s opposition to the plaintiff’s motion for

Continue Reading CA11: No Summary Judgment For You On Takings Claim When Town Provided Some Evidence Of Public Customary Use Of Beach

All the topics you want to know about, presented by top-notch faculty from across the nation. Sessions include:

  • Keynote: Do Animals Have Property Rights?
  • Did the Supreme Court Signal a New Direction in Property Rights in Cedar Point Nursery?
  • Maximizing Relocation Benefits: Understanding the Law and Regulations to Ensure Fairness
  • Challenging Public Use: Lessons From a 67-Day Trial
  • COVID Takings
  • Property Rights as Civil Rights
  • Eminent Domain National Update
  • Federal Court and the Daubert Challenge: How to Prepare
  • How to Position Your Client for the Fallout When Projects Don’t Get Built
  • Rural Broadband and the Emerging Constitutional Challenges
  • Are Precondemnation Entry Statutes Still Valid After Cedar Point Nursery?
  • How Condemnor and Property Owners’ Counsel Prepare the Battlefield
  • How Will the Trillion Dollar Infrastructure Bill Impact Your Practice?
  • Ethics
  • …and more, including a full slate of networking and social events!

We’ve sold out the last few years, so don’t Continue Reading Registration Open Now: ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Jan 26-29, 2022, Scottsdale

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s recent opinion in A Flock of Seagirls LLC v. Walton County, No. 20-12584 (Aug. 5, 2021) isn’t about judicial takings, or even about eminent domain (even though a straight condemnation turned up in the factual background).

But this blog’s frequently flyers might want to take a read anyhow because it involves public and private rights of use in the dry-sand beach along the Florida coast. We know those issues are closely related to our faves like public trust, judicial takings and the like, so read on.

Here are the facts. The county holds an express easement along two beachfront lots for “a way of passage, on or by foot only” that the State of Florida earlier had exacted from the owners in the course of eminent domain proceedings. But if the county tries to use the easement for some

Continue Reading We Already Have An Express Easement Allowing Public Foot Traffic On Private Beach. Walton County: Hold My Beer!