Eminent Domain: First Principles, Kelo, and In Service of Infrastructure Buildout
Newsflash: Rockweed Not a Fish
The Right of Way Consultant’s Council Membership Meeting took place in Downtown Las Vegas on November 3, 2023. Having previously presented an eminent domain topic at the 2022 Membership Meeting, Steven Silva from Nossaman’s...more
A New York Appellate Court (Fourth Department) (“Court”) addressed in a November 8th Order an action filed by a potential purchaser of a 50 acre parcel of property against the Town of Carroll, New York alleging a taking...more
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The California Constitution contains a similar provision. Reading these constitutional...more
This Fall, the California Coastal Commission (“Commission”) was handed down two significant victories, further cementing its authority and jurisdiction within California coastal zones. These cases demonstrate that, in certain...more
The 2011 America Invents Act (AIA) provided a variety of new ways to administratively challenge patents, including the now widely used inter partes review (“IPR”) procedure. In two recent appeals of IPR decisions, Genentech...more
Many states have enacted eminent domain reform since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which broadly defined “public use” to include the government’s acquiring property for another private...more
In an interesting twist, eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court agreed on June 23, 2017, in the case of Murr v. Wisconsin, No. 15-214, that state regulations making two adjoining lots held in common ownership into a single...more
In 2005, the United States Supreme Court decided in Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), that the Constitution allows the government to take private property through eminent domain for the purpose of “economic...more
One issue that can arise in eminent domain actions involving undeveloped (or under developed) property is whether the property being acquired is potentially subject to a dedication requirement. If the property’s overall...more
In PLR 201609003, the IRS determined that a taxpayer was entitled to exclude gain attributable to the forced transfer of the taxpayer’s ownership of public use facilities, even though the taxpayer did not hold legal title to...more
We all knew this was coming (see my post from July 23). If you poke a sleeping giant, it's going to file a lawsuit against you in federal court. Yesterday, in response to the City of Richmond's preliminary actions to...more
Many real estate industry professionals are familiar with the government's substantial power and discretion in land-use permitting. Land-use applicants on the verge of lucrative development opportunities find themselves in a...more
This is the first installment in a series of articles related to lender-involved condemnation. This article provides an introduction to the principles of eminent domain and condemnation in a question and answer format. The...more