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Hoku Lele, LLC v. City and County of Honolulu

Opinion of the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals

The Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, in a unanimous panel opinion authored by Judge Foley, held that a "zoning verification" by the Director of the City and County's Department of Planning and Permitting is not a "action...more

Big Year For Published Eminent Domain Decisions

Originally Published in Daily Journal, January 15, 2013. As we look back on 2012, federal funds continued to make their way to local projects and shovels continued to break ground for infrastructure projects. This led to...more

California High Court Issues Important Ruling on Labor Speech Rights of Unions on Private Property

The California Supreme Court recently issued its decision in Ralphs Grocery Company v. United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 8. Although the ruling resolved a long-standing dispute between a supermarket owner and the...more

California Supreme Court Permits Picketing on Private Property

In a split decision, the California Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of two statutes that restrict state court injunctions against picketing by labor unions on private property. Ralphs Grocery Co. v. United Food...more

Unions May Now Picket On Private Property In California

In a blow to retail businesses in California, the California Supreme Court has held that labor unions have the right to picket in front of privately owned store entrances. In Ralphs Grocery Company v. United Food and...more

Eminent Domain Opinions Focus On 'Just Compensation'

Originally Published in Daily Journal, January 4, 2013 It has been quite a busy year for takings cases, and the state Court of Appeal provided one last published eminent domain opinion just before 2012 came to a close....more

Legal Alert: California Supreme Court Reverses Court Of Appeal; Declares State Labor Picketing Laws Constitutional In 6-1 Decision...

In a case that will significantly strengthen labor's hand regarding picketing activities in the state, the California Supreme Court reversed a Court of Appeals decision that had declared unconstitutional two state laws...more

Repeated Seasonal Flooding Of Forest Land Authorized By Government May Qualify As A Taking of Property

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorized repeated seasonal flooding that damaged trees on forest land owned by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The question before the United States Supreme Court was “whether a...more

Court Decision on Loss of Goodwill Results in Sour Grapes for Business Owners

California is one of only a few states in which a business may recover for loss of goodwill when property is taken by eminent domain, but even here there are limitations on a business' right to recover for such damages. ...more

I Saw the Sign, and It . . . Was Taken Down?

Those don't quite sound like the lyrics to the early-90's popular Ace of Base hit, "The Sign." But they likely describe the situation of many travelers on the I-10 freeway in Los Angeles thanks to a recent California Court...more

When Adopting a Resolution of Necessity, Can Failing to Consider a Substitute Condemnation Constitute a Gross Abuse of Discretion?

While most lawsuits typically start with the filing of a complaint, eminent domain cases really start one key step earlier, with the condemning agency’s adoption of a Resolution of Necessity. The Resolution establishes (i)...more

Privately-Owned Utility Company Liable In Action For Inverse Condemnation

A court of appeal recently held that a privately-owned utility company may be held liable for inverse condemnation as a public entity. (Pacific Bell Telephone Company v. Southern California Edison Company (--- Cal.Rptr.3d...more

UPDATE: Sifting Through the Ashes: The Demise of Redevelopment Agencies and the Scramble to Figure Out the Next Step By Brian D....

INTRODUCTION - Faced with a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, Governor Jerry Brown targeted the dissolution of redevelopment agencies (“RDAs”) as a means to lower the deficit and redirect RDA assets to other areas of state...more

Horne v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

Brief for the CATO Institute, et al., as Amici Curiae in Support of the Petitioner for Certiorari

Property owners should not be made to suffer a needless, Rube Goldberg-style litigation process to vindicate their constitutional rights. Yet that is exactly what the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks to impose on...more

Supreme Court decides Match-E-be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians v. Patchak

On June 18, 2012, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Match-E-be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians v. Patchak, permitting an individual who owns land near a tribal casino in Michigan to challenge...more

Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States

Brief Amicus Curiae Of Pacific Legal Foundation, CATO Institute, And Atlantic Legal Foundation In Support of Petitioner

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission owns and operates 23,000 acres of land as a wildlife refuge and recreational preserve; the preserve's trees are essential to its use for these purposes. Clearwater Dam, a federal flood...more

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Confirms Supremacy of HUP Test for Determining Real Estate Tax Exemptions

On April 25, 2012, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a potentially explosive decision to 501(c) corporations in Mesivtah Eitz Chaim of Bobov, Inc. v. Pike County Board of Assessment Appeals; No. 16 MAP 2011. At issue was...more

Marzulla Law Legal Report - October 2011

In This Issue: - Ninth Circuit Affirms Validity of Fifth Amendment Claim In Guam - Takings Case Until 2002, Jan's Helicopters operated a helicopter transport business out of the island of Guam, a territory of the...more

Can the Government Condition Development on Cash Payments?

On October 26, 2011, Mark Murakami presented a lecture to Hawaii landowners, land lawyers, and government officials about an important case currently being considered for review by the U.S. Supreme Court about the...more

Marzulla Law Legal Report - August 31, 2011

In This Issue: - Court Invalidates Critical Habitat Designation - Testimonial - Expert Witness: Chuck Knight - Endangered Species Listings on The Rise: How to Protect Your Rights if an Endangered Species is Listed...more

Michigan Supreme Court Clears Path For Judicial Review of State Tax Commission Decisions On Property Classification

Until recently, property owners in Michigan who disputed a local assessor’s classification of their property for tax purposes were not permitted to seek judicial review of the State Tax Commission’s decision. However, in...more

Eminent Domain: What To Do – And Not Do – When The Government Seeks To Condemn Your Property Or Business

You get a notice in the mail or a knock at the door: it's the government with news that your property or business is in the way of a government project – the new school, the freeway widening, the new power line. The...more

Foreign Farmland Ownership

How big a threat does foreign farmland ownership pode to Brazil?...more

Otay Mesa Property, LP v. United States

Order staying attorneys' fee petition

A federal judge holds that the judicial efficiencies to be realized by not ruling on a pending attorneys' fee petition until after the appeal is complete overrides the requirements of the the Uniform Relocation Assistance and...more

Eminent-Domain Reform Bill Advances in New Jersey State Senate, But Does Not Take a Big Leap

On October 7, 2010, the New Jersey Senate's Community and Urban Affairs Committee approved S-1451, a bill intended to give property owners greater rights in condemnation cases and redevelopment projects (the "Bill"). Namely,...more