Yearly Archives: 2010

Yesterday’s webinar “The Wacky & Wonderful World of Eminent Domain After Kelo” packed a lot of information into one quick hour. Speakers Robert Thomas, partner at Damon, Key, Leong, Kupchak, Hastert in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Andrew Schwartz, partner at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger in San Francisco, California, presented their opposing viewpoints on the use of eminent domain for redevelopment.

The Princeton Daily Clarion newspaper published an article this morning recapping the meeting held last night in Oakland City, Indiana to inform property owners of their rights and options in eminent domain and on the potential impacts of the proposed I-69 Corridor Project connecting Evansville to Indianapolis.

OCA Member, Robert Thomas (Hawaii) will be speaking about what the Court in Kelo really decided, and how courts in the intervening five years have viewed the decision. On the panel with Mr. Thomas will be Andrew W. Schwartz, from San Francisco’s Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger. The session will be moderated by John Clapp, Ph.D. of the UConn Center for Real Estate, and Michele Maresca, a land use attorney at Robinson & Cole in Hartford.

The Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) will be hosting an informational forum concerning Indiana Department of Transportation’s (INDOT) I-69 corridor project, a 142-mile highway connecting Indianapolis and Evansville. The meeting will take place at the Wirth Park Community Building in Oakland City, Wednesday, October 20, 2010 beginning at 6:30 PM.

Sunday (10/10/10), The Las Vegas Sun featured Owners’ Counsel of America member and eminent domain attorney, Kermitt Waters, in a story titled Crusading eminent domain lawyer a man of the people. As Reporter Erin Dostal explained: “The cell phone won’t stop ringing. It is election season, after all, and it seems as if everybody from every party wants a piece of Kermitt Waters.”

The following press release regarding a recent NY Court of Claims ruling awarding just compensation of $12.1 million to the property owner in an eminent domain action is available in its entirety here.

The seventh annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference and presentation of the 2010 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize took place September 30 and October 1, 2010 at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia. The 2010 Conference included various panel discussions focused upon private property rights as well as the scholarship of the 2010 prize recipient, Carol Rose.

The seventh annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference was held from September 30 to October 1, 2010, at the William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Yesterday, the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas, Texas heard oral argument in the defamation suit brought by developer H. Walker Royall against author Carla Main and the non-profit publisher, Encounter For Culture and Education, Inc. (“Encounter Books”), for writing and publishing the book Bulldozed: “Kelo,” Eminent Domain and the American Lust for Land. Dana Berliner, Institute for Justice Senior Attorney, argued on behalf of Main and Encounter Books in support of their first amendment rights to freedom of speech and in opposition to developer H. Walk Royall’s request for monetary damages and that the Court prohibit further printing or distribution of the book.

Tomorrow, September 28, 2010, author Carla T. Main and publisher Encounter Books will ask a Texas appeals court to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against them by Dallas developer H. Walker Royall.