Our law firm’s annual legal film festival at the Honolulu Museum of Art’s Doris Duke Theatre will launch later this week with the Hawaii premiere of Hannah Arendt, an award-winning film about the controversial New Yorker reporting by Arendt about the Jerusalem war crimes trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in 1961.

During the festival, we show films about lawyers (or, in the case of Hannah Arendt, films that raise issues of interest to lawyers). Our Damon Key colleague Bethany Ace joined us in reviewing the movie. We hope you can join us if you are in Honolulu from September 14-20. If so, and you’d like a ticket or two gratis, let us know.

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Robert H. Thomas and Bethany C.K. Ace

Last week, Rochus Misch, 96, aretired German shopkeeper, died in Berlin of old age. His death was noted byevery major news outlet in the world.

Why…

Continue Reading “Hannah Arendt” – Our Review Of A Legal Movie With No Lawyers

Here’s the latest case involving the TransCanada pipeline, a 2,151 mile petroleum pipline from Hardisty, Alberta in Canada, to Port Arthur, Texas, via Illinois and Oklahoma. In an earlier case (Rhinoceros Ventures Grp., Inc. v. TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P., 388 S.W.3d 405, 408 (Tex. App. 2012), a Texas court of appeals held that the statute delegating eminent domain power to pipeline companies did not limit that delegation only to those operating within Texas. The court rejected the property owner’s argument that TransCanada was without power to take its property. See also this ruling by another Texas court of appeals (Ninth District) which also upheld TransCanada’s power to take property by eminent domain even though it is not a governmental agency.

Another court of appeals has joined them. In Crawford Family Farm P’ship v. Transcanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P., No. 06-12-00113-CV (Aug. 27, 2013), the Sixth District, echoed…

Continue Reading Tex App (Again): TransCanada Keystone Pipeline Is Common Carrier With Eminent Domain Power

We had such a blast last year putting on a film festival highlighting some of our favorite legal movies, we decided to do it again.

From Saturday, September 14 through Friday, September 20, 2013, we are again teaming up with the Honolulu Museum of Arts’ Doris Duke Theatre to sponsor screenings of three law-related films:

• Hannah Arendt – The Hawaii premiere of a critically-acclaimed film about the controversial New Yorker reporting of the war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann.

• 12 Angry Men – The #2 film on the ABA Journal listing of the favorite law films, this classic takes you into a world where most attorneys will never go: a jury room. With an instantly-recognizable cast of stars led by Henry Fonda.

• My Cousin Vinny – A new classic, #3 on the ABA Journal‘s list and a subtle comedic take on To Kill a Mockingbird, this fish-out-of-water tale

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Continue Reading “Let’s Film All The Lawyers” – Our Second Law Film Festival

It’s true: as you get older, you forget birthdays. Thus, it only occurred to us today that three days ago, this blog’s “birthday” passed without notice. It hardly seems like seven years ago that we posted here for the first time. In law blog years, that’s quite a while.

Because doing this in a vacuum would not be worthwhile, I’d like to recognize those who send us items, who make comments, who gently prod with suggestions. I’d also like to hail my fellow law bloggers who, like me, make the time to share thoughts about the legal issues of the day. Although you’re not quite “Real Men [and Women] of Genius,” today we salute you, Mr. Law Blog Blogging Guy (and Gals):

• Anna Oshiro’s Hawaii Construction Law

• David McCauley’s Hawaii Immigration Lawyer

• Dwight Merriam’s RLUIPA Defense

• Mark Murakami’s Hawaii Ocean Law

• Tred Eyerly’s Insurance Law Hawaii

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Continue Reading Starting Our Eighth Year

Here’s the latest in one of the federal lawsuits by the mortgage holders challenging Mortgage Resolution Partners and Richmond, California’s scheme to seize underwater mortgages by eminent domain.

On August 8, 2013, the plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction (scheduled to be heard in San Francisco on September 13, 2013), which asks the District Court to stop MRP/Richmond from “taking any further action to implement their program to seize residential mortgage loans through eminent domain (the “Richmond Seizure Program”) with respect to any mortgage loans held in residential mortgage-backed securitization trusts for which Plaintiffs serve as trustees …”  The supporting memorandum of law fleshes out the claims made in the Complaint (summarized here), arguing that the seizure program allows MRP to “hand-select[]” which mortgages to take, that it tries to take property located outside the physical boundaries of Richmond, that any taking would be for private…

Continue Reading Preliminary Injunction Briefs In Richmond Underwater Mortgage Takings Challenge

Our friend and colleague Paul Schwind has been keeping us up to date with the latest in the dual legal challenges to the Honolulu rail project. His last post focused on the state court happenings.

Here’s the latest on the federal court action, now awaiting oral argument in the coming weeks in the Ninth Circuit. Here’s Paul’s most recent update in the federal lawsuit, when in December 2012 the court imposed a remedy for the defendants’ violations of section 4(f) of the Transportation Act. Paul now provides us with a preview of the arguments in the Ninth Circuit.

Programming notes. We’ll most likely be attending the arguments in San Francisco, and will have a report following. Also, Paul and I will be presenting a session on the latest in the rail project (including happenings in both state court and the Ninth Circuit) at the upcoming Eminent Domain and …

Continue Reading Guest Post: Ninth Circuit Rail Appeal Preview

It’s not about eminent domain, land use, or any of the other topics we find fascinating, but it’s worth following: a law blog by a sitting federal judge.

It’s “Hercules and the Umpire,” and is written by Senior District Judge Richard Kopf, of the District of Nebraska. He explains why he’s doing this, and the name of the blog here. So far, he’s posted about wiretaps, the judicial nomination process, and a look back at the early days of his practice. We welcome the blog, and hope he keeps going.

We’ve subscribed, and recommend you do so also – how often do you get insight into a judge’s thought processess? Continue Reading New Blog By Federal Judge: “Hercules and the Umpire”

We’re going to break the “fourth wall” for a moment, since some of our readers have reported issues with the blog loading properly when accessed via the web (www.inversecondemnation.com).

Now this may seem a bit redundant for those of you who already regularly access our content via the web site, but many of our readers use other methods such as subscribing to our RSS feed, email, and Feedburner, so may not be seeing a problem if one exists.

So here’s our request: please visit the site here, and report whether you are getting any load or script errors. Some readers have reported that they are, yet when we load up our various browsers, we can’t replicate the problem. If it is a problem, we’d like to resolve it. 

If you are experiencing a problem, please let us know.

Continue Reading Admin Request: Inversecondemnation.com Loading OK?