On-Demand Webinar | Eminent Domain in 2020: A Year in Review
The contours of inverse condemnation liability are often tested by creative California plaintiff’s lawyers. In an opinion earlier this year, one Northern California Federal Court dealt with a novel lawsuit in which the Vichy...more
Planning and constructing public infrastructure projects takes significant time – sometimes many years. Property owners and businesses who may be impacted are left in a state of limbo, not knowing for sure whether the project...more
Lake Meredith is a reservoir located about 30 miles northeast of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle. It was formed when the State of Texas built the Sanford Dam on the Canadian River in 1965. When the dam was completed the...more
State of Texas. V. Reimer et al. studied lawyer-nerdy questions of standing to bring a lawsuit and statutes of limitations as applied to inverse condemnation suits. Spoiler alert: To the chagrin of the landowners, waiting...more
It is one of the most common assumptions made by clients in litigation: “If I win, the other side will have to pay my attorney’s fees, right?” Unfortunately, that assumption is often wrong—especially in North Carolina. The...more
Can a public entity be held liable for inverse condemnation when it fails to prevent another party from causing damage to private property? This one is pretty simple: the answer is no....more
Inverse condemnation is a legal theory that is not common in the subrogation industry. However, when dealing with a loss where property damage is the result of action by a public entity, it is a claim that may be available....more
When water agencies provide water to customers, and that water causes damage to customer property, can water agencies face inverse condemnation liability? For quite some time, inverse condemnation liability appeared to be...more
Investors and developers scour the Southern California real estate market searching for opportunities to buy dated houses that they can demolish and replace with large, modern homes to sell for much more. A few individuals...more
In litigation underlying Satcher v. Columbia County, 2024 WL 3802370 (Ga. Aug. 13, 2024), property owners sued the County related to damage caused by their privately-owned 48-inch pipe that had been used as part of the...more
Benton Housing Associates Limited Partnership (“Benton Housing”) filed on August 9th in the United States District Court for the District of Arkansas (Central Division) a Complaint against the following defendants: City...more
When a property owner brings a regulatory taking / inverse condemnation claim based on a city or county’s zoning decisions, the owner often provides context and history, including public statements made by staff, board...more
We’ve been closely watching the Sheetz v. County of El Dorado case, which has worked its way up through the California trial and appellate courts all the way to the US Supreme Court. For a quick refresher, the case concerns...more
2023 has been another interesting year in the eminent domain world. We’ve reported on some interesting court decisions, we’ve seen funding make its way to some critical infrastructure projects in California and changing...more
With the frequency of wildfires and flooding, landslides are becoming more frequent throughout California. When public agencies have water pipelines located in hillsides, the situation presents the classic “chicken or egg”...more
In California, when a government entity adopts a resolution of necessity to acquire property by eminent domain, that resolution typically “conclusively” establishes the requisite findings of public use and necessity. However,...more
UNITED STATES UPDATES - Arkansas- City of Sherwood v. Bearden, 2023 Ark. App. 67 (2023 Ark. App. LEXIS 68)- Facts: Property owners filed an inverse condemnation action alleging the City had placed rainwater...more
On June 10, 2023, a jury in Portland, Oregon found PacifiCorp and Pacific Power (collectively, “PacifiCorp”) liable for negligence, trespass, and nuisance based on a series of four wildfires that occurred during Labor Day...more
UNITED STATES UPDATES - California - Today’s IV, Inc. v. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 2022 Cal.App. LEXIS 840 (2022 WL 5107251) - Facts: A property owner who owned a hotel in Los...more
Planning and constructing large public works projects can take years. When those projects will impact private property, owners are left in a difficult situation, as the cloud of condemnation hangs over their property, making...more
With all the recent storms in California, private property is bound to suffer impacts from storm water runoff, landslides, erosion and subsidence. Understanding whether the government bears responsibility for such damage is a...more
Update: We previously published the alert below regarding House Bill (“HB”) 698 in the 134th Ohio General Assembly, which proposed numerous changes to Ohio’s eminent domain statutes that would be favorable to property owners,...more
The Arkansas Court of Appeals (“Court of Appeals”) addressed in a February 15th Opinion issues arising out of an inverse condemnation claim. See City of Sherwood v. Clint Bearden, 2023 Ark. App. 67. The inverse...more
On October 6, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals of Houston, Texas issued an opinion in San Jacinto River Authority v. Gonzalez, et al., a case involving claims by 85 residents against the San Jacinto River Authority...more
A hotel owner brought a lawsuit against a county transportation authority and a general contractor for nuisance and inverse condemnation alleging that the construction of an underground subway line disrupted the operation of...more