Residential Real Estate › Constitutional Law

Stanislaus County Moving Forward with Claribel Road Project

After two years of negotiating with residential property owners, the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors approved acquisition of the property by eminent domain. The Modesto Bee reports that the board approved the...more

Florida to Government: Your Lien Doesn't Foreclose This Old Mortgage

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that cities cannot create ordinances that subject prior recorded mortgages to their subsequently recorded county or governmental liens, because it conflicts with Florida's state statutes on...more

Second Circuit Agrees To Hear Interlocutory Appeal Of Key MBS Litigation Questions

On May 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted two petitions seeking interlocutory appeal of key questions related to pending mortgage backed securities (MBS) cases....more

Court Explicates Scope of Usury Exemption For Real Estate Brokers

Artistotle didn’t think much of the idea of paying interest: (“As this is so, usury is most reasonably hated, because its gain comes from money itself and not from that for the sake of which money was invented. For...more

The Mechanics of Mechanics Liens

One of the most effective payment remedies for direct contractors, subcontractors and material suppliers is the mechanics lien. First conceived by Thomas Jefferson to encourage construction of the then “new” capital city of...more

Court Holds That Statute Of Limitations Applies To Section 50(a)(6) Constitutional Claims

In Priester v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., homeowners sued for declaratory relief against their lender claiming that the lien on their home was void under the Texas Constitution. No. 12-40032, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 3097 (5th...more

City of Imperial at an Impasse Over Transit Center

The City of Imperial has taken the first step in pursuing an eminent domain proceeding by adopting a resolution of necessity to acquire a vacant property for its Transit Center Project. As reported by the Imperial Valley...more

Another Failed Regulatory Takings Claim Under Penn Central

We've talked in the past about just how hard it is to state a regulatory takings claim under the Supreme Court's decision in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104. I'd go through the test and how...more

New Floodplain Ordinance Targets Oil and Gas Operations

The County Commission in Doddridge County, West Virginia is currently considering amendments to its Floodplain Ordinance as a result of a December 17, 2012 decision by the Circuit Court of Doddridge County. (Comments to the...more

Harold C. Wallace v. Midwest Financial & Mortgage Services Inc., et al

Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals re: Summary Judgment Reversed for Appraisal Fraud

A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 23 reversed an award of summary judgment to a mortgage lender, a mortgage brokerage firm and its principals after finding that an appraisal that inflated the value of a...more

Mortgagee and Mortgagor Standing and the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in HSBC Bank USA, N.A., Trustee v. Jodi B. Matt, No. 11101 (Jan. 14, 2013), recently clarified the issue of standing for both plaintiffs and defendants in actions under the...more

Second Circuit Affirms Denial of UBS’s Motion to Dismiss FHFA Complaint

On April 5, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the decision of the district court denying UBS’s motion to dismiss the complaint brought by the FHFA. FHFA sued UBS as conservator of Fannie Mae...more

Equal Protection Claims Concerning Disparate Enforcement of Environmental Laws Remain an Uphill Battle

In 2000, in its 2-page per curiam opinion in Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, the Supreme Court gave hope to developers and property owners that the equal protection clause could be used to prevent local zoning and...more

Can Police Enter Condominium Common Elements Without A Search Warrant?

As reported in the Ottawa Citizen, in a recent drug trafficking case the Ontario Superior Court considered whether the police could enter, without a search warrant, the common elements of the condominium building in which the...more

Second Circuit Allows FHFA MBS Suits To Proceed

On April 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s partial denial of a financial institution’s motion to dismiss on standing and timeliness grounds a suit brought by the FHFA. Fed. Hous....more

Jury Sides With Property Owner in Solano County Eminent Domain Trial

According to an article in the Daily Republic, Jury: County owes $1.24M in eminent domain dispute, Solano County and a local land owner recently completed an eminent domain trial, and the jury sided with the owner. The case,...more

No Marriage for Mortgage Resolution Partners Yet (But Proposal Still Being Considered)

Last summer, we at Crunched Credit wrote (here, here and here) about Mortgage Resolution Partner’s (“MRP”), a San Francisco-based venture-capital firm, proposal whereby underwater performing residential mortgage loans held in...more

Regulatory Takings: Monks v. Rancho Palos Verdes Revisited (Again)

For those of you who have followed Nossaman's blog since the very early days, you'll recall our coverage of a significant regulatory takings case, Monks v. City of Rancho Palos Verdes. The 2008 California decision received...more

Standing: An Affirmative Defense To Mortgage Foreclosure

To have standing to foreclose, it must be demonstrated that the plaintiff holds the note and mortgage in question. Mazine v. M & I Bank, 67 So. 3d 1129, 1132 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011). The plaintiff must prove that it had standing...more

Q&A With Bilzin Sumberg's Howard Nelson

Originally Published in Law360 on March 28, 2013. Howard Nelson, chairman of the environmental practice group at Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP, has experience in environmental and land use law and zoning and...more

Appellate Notes: Week of March 18, 2013

In This Issue: - SC18921- Redding Life Care, Inc. v. Redding - SC18846- Bauer v. Bauer - SC18947- State v. Charlotte Hungerford Hospital - AC34075- Carrillo v. Goldberg - AC33764- Alarmax...more

Follow Up on IRWA/Appraisal Institute "2012 Eminent Domain Year in Review" Presentation

For those of you who attended the joint meeting today between Chapter 1 of the International Right of Way Association and the Appraisal Institute, we promised to post a cheat sheet that reminds you about the cases associated...more

Update: After Rehearing, Court Of Appeal Upholds Its Previous Parcel Tax Ruling

The court of appeal recently upheld its previous ruling that a parcel tax approved by Alameda Unified School District (“District”) voters violates the Government Code’s restriction that special taxes apply “uniformly to all...more

SCA 3 Proposes Constitutional Amendment To Lower Voter Approval Requirement For Parcel Taxes From Two-Thirds To 55 Percent For...

SCA 3 seeks to amend the California Constitution relating to taxation by amending Section 4 of Article XIIIA, adding Section 4.5 to Article XIIIA, amending Section 2 of Article XIIIC, and amending Section 3 of Article XIIID,...more

Challenging The Condominium Association That Tried To Ban Judaism At The Door

This past April a Connecticut condominium association reversed its decision to prohibit Mezuzahs on the doorposts of residents' apartments. A Mezuzah is a Jewish religious article in the shape of a small rectangle, which...more