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Author Archive | Michael Rikon

October 22, 2020

Eminent Domain and New York’s Requirement for an Advance Payment: Stop the Monkey Business

We wrote on several occasions of the State of New York’s improper conduct of depositing the authorized advance payment into the State’s Comptroller’s Office. The State fails to provide any advance notice and refuses to tell the claimant when the deposit was made or why.  The claimant first learns the “when” and the “why” when the State submits an Answer.  And often times the purported rationale is questionable. Unless a court intervenes and stops this improper conduct, the State’s automatic deposits of the advance payment will continue unabated and a… read more

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Posted in Advance Payments, Distribution Proceeding, Eminent Domain
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October 20, 2020

Why Adjust Expert Fee in An Application Pursuant to EDPL Section 701?

In a recent decision by the Honorable Wayne P. Saitta, Supreme Court, Kings County, the court discussing Section 701 of the Eminent Domain Procedure Law stated: Where the proof offered by a claimant has had no effect on the final award, then it cannot be found to have been necessary to achieve just and adequate compensation and the court will not award an additional allowance as to those efforts.  (First Bank & Trust Co. of Corning v State of New York, 184 AD2d 1034, [4th Dept 1992] affd 81 NY… read more

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Posted in EDPL Sec. 701, Reimbursement of Legal Fees
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October 15, 2020

No Donald, You Can’t Do That

On October 9, 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Trump’s use of his emergency powers to build his long-promised border wall with military funds is illegal.  (And no, Mexico is not paying for the wall.)   $36 billion was slated for construction of about a dozen projects including two projects in the Laredo and El Paso areas.  The money was diverted from funds dedicated for military construction.  The projects in Texas would have covered more than 60 miles according to the American Civil Liberties Union.  Some experts… read more

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Posted in Border Wall, Military Construction, Sierra Club v Trump
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October 8, 2020

Texas Bullet Train Gains Federal Approval

The high-speed train that promises to transport passengers between Dallas and Houston in 90 minutes has been approved by the Federal Railroad Administration according to Texas Central Railroad, the company in charge of the project.   The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration issued the two key rulings, which provide the regulatory framework and the environmental review for the high-speed train, that Texas official were waiting on to move forward with the project, according to the company.  The announcement was first reported by the Houston Chronicle.   Texas Central… read more

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Posted in Bullet Train, Consequential Damages, Uncategorized
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October 1, 2020

Remembering the Honorable Albert A. Blinder

Retired Court of Claims Judge Albert A. Blinder died on September 23, 2020.  He was just short of 95 and had an illustrious legal career. I was lucky to have been recommended to him as a law clerk when he was first appointed to the bench by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1973.  I was an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York serving in the Condemnation Division and had just completed a trial in the Court of Claim, City of New York v State of New York, 49… read more

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Posted in Court of Claims, Judge Albert A. Blinder
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