Eminent Domain Report

According to Jason Henry's article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, West Covina contests condemnation of properties at Westfield Mall, Lakes Drive, the City of West Covina plans to contest an eminent domain action filed by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to acquire land near Westfield Mall needed for the expansion of the I-10 Freeway.  

Caltrans' proposed acquisition will eliminate a California Pizza Kitchen, the former Bob's Big Boy building, an AT&T store, as well as a row of parking spaces along the I-10 near Lakes Drive.  The City claims that Caltrans ...

Earlier this week, Governor Brown vetoed AB 374, a bill to amend Code of Civil Procedure section 1263.510, the statute governing recovery of loss of business goodwill in an eminent domain case.  But it's not the veto that caught my eye so much as the veto message, which really left me scratching my head until I looked more carefully at what was going on (or at least what appeared to be going on).

Some history:  last year, the Court of Appeal issued the decision in People ex rel. Department of Transportation v. Dry Canyon Enterprises 211 Cal.App.4th 486 (2012).  The case purported to make some ...

More than 50 years ago, Caltrans purchased roughly 500 homes under threat of eminent domain within the planned right-of-way for the anticipated construction of the I-710 freeway (linking Monterey Park to Pasadena).  That freeway project still has not been built, yet Caltrans continues to own the properties.  There have been plenty of negative news stories about the amount of money Caltrans has spent on the upkeep of those residences (see Gideon's Trumpet), but apparently Caltrans' property ownership may finally come to an end.  Not because the I-710 freeway is actually going to be ...

The Supreme Court is apparently not done with its recent interest in takings decisions.  Following the decisions in Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. United States,  Horne v. Department of Agriculture, and Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Mgmt District, the Supreme Court announced today that it will hear another takings case, Marvin M. Brandt Irrevocable Trust v. United States.  The Supreme Court's blog describes the issue in Brandt as follows:

Whether the United States retained an implied reversionary interest in rights-of-way created by the General Railroad Right-of-Way Act of ...

According to an article in the Desert Sun, CVAG OKs plan to help fund passenger rail, the Coachella Valley Association of Governments ("CVAG") recently approved an agreement with the Riverside County Transportation Commission for a new rail fund that will devote a portion of local transportation funds to expanding passenger rail service.  It will likely take at least a year before the agencies are able to report on possible station locations and schedules, but the long-term plan is to have connections through the valley with Los Angeles.

A prior study proposed stops in three cities ...

Property owners are routinely hiring attorneys well in advance of a public agency's filing of an eminent domain action.  Many times, the representation begins before it is even certain whether the agency will actually move forward with acquiring the property.  And sometimes, claims for inverse condemnation may ripen during the public agency's construction of the project on other nearby properties.  When this overlap exists between inverse condemnation and potential future eminent domain actions, owners should be careful to assess how the attorney will be compensated.  A recent ...

On October 2, my partner Brad Kuhn and I will be speaking at the International Right of Way Association, Chapter 57, lunch meeting.  The meeting takes place at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Riverside -- and who doesn't like old spaghetti? 

We're going to talk about a little of everything, updating people on a few of the more interesting eminent domain cases decided recently, talking about the progress in the dissolution of California's redevelopment agencies, and taking a look at Richmond, California's plan to condemn underwater mortgages. 

If you're in the area -- or just want to hear ...

OK, I'll admit it.  A year ago I thought this whole condemnation-of-underwater-mortgages thing would die off pretty quickly.  I predicted we'd never see any large-scale condemnation effort.  So far, I've missed badly on the first prediction -- but it remains to be seen whether I'm right on the second one.

To date (unless I've missed something), not a single condemnation action has been filed anywhere in the U.S. to condemn an underwater mortgage.  But the concept certainly has not disappeared quietly into the night.  Instead, some cities continue to pursue the idea.

One in particular ...

Caltrans just announced that California will be receiving $155 million in extra funding for launching its new construction projects before federal deadlines.  Caltrans will receive about $97 million of that award, with local and regional agencies receiving the balance.  States that fail to meet federal deadlines lose funds, which revert to a pool that benefits states like California, that consistently launch projects on time.  This year, California received the largest share of that pool, with New York the next highest at $81 million.

"The federal government has rewarded Caltrans ...

As reported by our colleague Robert Thomas on inversecondemnation.com, the California Supreme Court granted the California Building Industry Association's (CBIA) petition for review in California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose.  The case will be the first test in California post-Koontz on whether the nexus/proportionality requirements apply to general regulations such as affordable housing exactions.

The CBIA filed the petition after the Court of Appeal for the Sixth Appellate District reversed and remanded the Superior Court's decision ...