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Author Archive | Michael Rikon

August 30, 2016

Landowners May Appeal To The Judiciary If Property Is Designated As Wetlands Subject To Federal Jurisdiction

This blog follows an article Michael Rikon wrote which was published in the New York Law Journal on August 26, 2016. Wetlands are areas saturated by surface or ground water sufficient to support distinctive vegetation adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.  The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation regulates two main types of wetlands, tidal wetlands along Long Island, New York City and up the Hudson River, and freshwater wetlands found on river and lake flood plains across the State. But wetlands may also be regulated by the… read more

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Posted in Uncategorized, US Supreme Court cases, Wetlands
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August 23, 2016

The Right to a Jury

Professor Gideon Kanner, once again, focused the law profession’s attention to the right to a jury in an eminent domain trial.  In an article published on August 19, 2016, in the Daily Journal, a California legal publication, Professor Kanner wrote, “Our eminent right to a jury….”  In his article, Kanner, one of America’s leading eminent domain scholars, states that the notion that there should be trial by the court and not a jury because “no such jury right existed in England and the colonies in 1791” is a myth.  The… read more

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Posted in Cases of First Impression, Eminent Domain, Future of the law
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August 18, 2016

Regulatory Taking and Inverse Condemnation: Taxi Medallions and Wetland Building Permits

In two separate decisions on August 15, 2016, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York rejected regulatory taking and inverse condemnation claims. The first decision is about the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission’s (“TLC”) commitment to “adopt regulations requiring that half of the city’s more than 13,000 yellow cabs be accessible to people with disabilities within six years.”  Singh v. Joshi, 152 F. Supp. 3d 112 (E.D.N.Y. 2016). The plaintiffs are three individual TLC medallion holders who argued that, among other things, the… read more

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Posted in Eminent Domain, Inverse Condemnation, Recent cases, Regulatory Taking, Wetlands
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August 11, 2016

Grand Central Terminal Air Rights Takings Litigation Settled

The Grand Central Terminal air rights takings litigation was settled yesterday.  We reviewed this litigation in our blog on June 8, 2016, available here: https://eminent-domain-blog.com/update-grand-central-terminal-air-rights-takings-litigation/ This settlement will allow for the construction of a 1,401-foot-tall building across 42nd Street on Vanderbilt Avenue in Manhattan. Interestingly, the settlement, according to a New York Times article, dated August 10, 2016, is likely because of a change in the ownership of the plaintiff corporation.  The new owners are MSD Capital, a firm controlled by Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computers, and brothers… read more

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Posted in Inverse Condemnation, Litigation, Zoning
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July 29, 2016

Eminent Domain Railway Corridor Valuation: New York Appellate Court Holds State Liable for $67,000,000 in Just Compensation

In a ground-breaking New York eminent domain case where the State of New York took almost seven acres of CSX Transportation, Inc.’s railroad and railway property in order to widen the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the Woodside and Jackson Heights areas of Queens, New York City, and then vigorously argued that CSX suffered no damage and should not even be awarded anything as just compensation, the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department, on July 27, 2016, in its second time ruling on this case, held that the State was completely… read more

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Posted in Eminent Domain, Recent cases
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