Articles

Government's noxious nuisance defense defeated after citrus trees destroyed

May 13, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Jim Burling A Florida Court of Appeals held on Wednesday, in Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services v. Toby Borgoff, that the deliberate destruction of over 100,000 healthy citrus trees constituted a compensable taking. The trees had been destroyed because other nearby trees were infected with citrus canker – a disease that dis ...

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City claims that environmental regulations should trump constitutionally protected property rights

August 24, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brian T. Hodges Kipp and Marilyn Dunlap bought a vacant residential lot in Nooksack, Washington with the dream of building their home there.  But the city had other ideas.  You see, Nooksack slough runs through the middle of the Dunlaps’ lot, and the city declared that land adjacent to streams constitutes an environmentall ...

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Washington Supreme Court limits inverse condemnation defenses

September 30, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brian T. Hodges  Earlier this month, Washington’s Supreme Court issued its long-awaited inverse condemnation decision in Fitzpatrick v. Okanogan County.  The case arose from a joint state/local project to protect a state highway from flood damage by diking the Methow River.  The diking project, however, blocked the r ...

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Leading biz journal dubs PLF "one of the state's top property-rights law firms"

October 20, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:  Paul J. Beard II Earlier this month, we filed a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission for attempting to extort a mile-long public-access easement of shoreline property from a family with land in San Luis Obispo, California, that wants to make simple repairs to a home.  We argue that the easement conditon& ...

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Court of Appeals : stream buffers took private property

October 25, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brian T. Hodges Earlier this year, PLF stepped in to help Kipp and Marilyn Dunlap protect themselves against an uncompensated taking of their vacant residential lot in Nooksack, Washington (located just south of the Canadian border).  As you may recall, the Dunlaps purchased a quarter-acre lot with the dream of building their home the ...

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The continuing fight against eminent domain abuse

October 28, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Last week, PLF filed an amicus brief in support of the property owners' petition for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court in Tuck-It-Away, Inc. v. New York State Urban Development Corporation.  The case is about Columbia University's plan to extend its campus into the Manhattanville ...

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His streets still have no name

June 21, 2012 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Earlier this week, the California Senate Judiciary Committee voted down Assembly Bill 2226, which would have amended the state’s government code to create a strong presumption that he who holds title is the beneficial owner of the property as well.  The issue came up in the context of U2 bandmember David Evans’ (The Edge) attempt R ...

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Court to California : Entering Private Land for Water Tunnel Studies Is a Taking

March 14, 2014 | By J. DAVID BREEMER

In  the latest development in California’s water wars, the California Court of Appeals issued a significant decision yesterday in Property Reserve, Inc. v. Superior Court, 2014 WL 978309 (Cal Ct. App. 2014). The opinion limits the State’s ability to enter and test private land it hopes to condemn for a public water project of stat ...

Articles

In a new victory, court blasts rules barring court access for property owners

May 16, 2014 | By J. DAVID BREEMER

Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a favorable published decision in Sherman v. Town of Chester, a case in which PLF filed an amicus brief.  In the case, a New York Town gave a property owner the run-around on his development plans for a decade, changing the rules every time he presented a plan for formal … ...