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Archive | 2014

September 10, 2014

Atlantic City’s Eminent Domain Mania

The 2 billion dollar casino hotel Revel closed its doors, unable to find a buyer in Bankruptcy Court. The showboat casino closed. The Wall Street Journal reported on September 9, 2014 that Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; this includes Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza casinos. Charles V. Bagli, writing in the New York Times on September 8, 2014, reported that the highest-grossing casino in America is not in Nevada or in Atlantic City, but in a hardscrabble neighborhood near Kennedy Airport where a Malaysian Conglomerate, the… read more

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Posted in Eminent Domain Abuse, New York
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September 9, 2014

Register Now for ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Conference

This year’s annual Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Seminar will be given by ALI-CLE on February 5-7, 2015 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, California. The program is a must for attorneys who practice eminent domain and land use law. The program includes both substantive and procedural presentations utilizing the best speakers in the country. Under the guidance of Robert H. Thomas and Joseph T. Waldo, the national program addresses those areas where new developments in the law and procedure have and will reshape the practice. The program… read more

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Posted in Continuing Legal Education, Future of the law, Speaking Appearances
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August 21, 2014

Appellate Division Affirms Award of $8.1 Million

On August 20, 2014, the New York Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed an award of $8,100,000 for just compensation to Split Rock Partnership for the taking of Claimant’s real property. The advance payment was $244,800. The decision can be found here. Claimant owned 64 acres of vacant land in the Village of Hillburn, which is located in Rockland County. In February 2005, Rockland County Sewer District No. 1 acquired the subject property by condemnation for the construction of a new sewer processing facility. The Appellate Division held that the measure… read more

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Posted in Highest and Best Use, New York, Recent cases, Valuation
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August 7, 2014

Second Department Precludes Interior Appraisal Inspection

Recently, we blogged about a California case, Property Reserve, Inc. v. Superior Court, 224 Cal. App. 4th Dept 828 (2014), wherein the California Third District of Appeal ruled that entry statues which allowed discovery , testing, and inspection of property which was being considered in a condemnation proceeding were unconstitutional. The case was also the subject of a recent New York Law Journal article published on June 24, 2014. New York has very similar pre-condemnation entry authorizations in its Eminent Domain Procedure Law. The column noted that Property Reserve did not… read more

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Posted in Condemnation Procedures, Eminent Domain Abuse, Entry Statutes, New York, Recent cases
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July 23, 2014

Third Department Gets The Project Influence Rule Right

The Third Department got it right in Matter of State of New York v KKS Properties, LLC, __ AD3d __, (July 3, 2014). The lower court’s decision in KKS Properties, LLC is one of those decisions that makes you cringe. An award on an appropriation claim in the Court of Claims which is lower than the advance payment resulting in a judgment in favor of the State is an outrageous outcome for a compulsory taking of one’s property. We have often advocated that there must be a minimum of “just compensation.”… read more

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Posted in Eminent Domain, Project Influence Rule, Published Articles, Recent cases
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