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Today, an excellent Student Program started off the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference at William & Mary law school. Named in recognition of Toby Prince Brigham and Gideon Kanner for their lifetime contributions to private property rights and their efforts to advance constitutional protection of property, the conference began in 2004 and continues to this day.  The conference is designed to bring together members of the bench, bar, and academia...

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Landowners, Lee and Ryan Thomas, who were represented by Andrew Brigham, OCA’s Florida member, recently defeated Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC when the Eleventh Circuit affirmed their two jury verdicts totaling over $1.3 million for easement rights for which the pipeline company earlier argued compensation should only be $39,700. Sabal Trail’s appeal sought to overturn the jury verdicts on the basis that the jurors improperly relied on the testimonies of...

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OCA recently filed an Amicus Brief on behalf of  Christus Church in the state of Wisconsin. The brief addresses important issues arising out of a pre-litigation “jurisdictional” offer made to the Church by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation that contained compensation for severance damages to the Church’s remaining property caused by highway proximity, even though the Department’s underlying appraisal found that there were no severance damages. OCA’s Amicus Brief...

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Mark Meierhenry, former South Dakota Attorney General and Owners’ Counsel of America member for many years passed away recently. While we knew Mark as a talented lawyer, a fierce defender of private property rights and a great member of our organization, his obituary revealed many other wonderful dimensions to his personality and background. Who knew for instance that he had argued six times before the U.S. Supreme Court? Or...

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OCA joined the Pacific Legal Foundation recently in filing an Amicus Brief in a case before the Virginia Supreme Court entitled Johnson v. City of Suffolk. This case involves a claim by Virginia oystermen that the City of Suffolk and a Sanitation District knowingly operated a sewage and stormwater system in such a way as to discharge wastewater into the Nansemond River, invading oyster beds being leased by the...

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In one of the first comprehensive court opinions on an issue of national interest, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected business owners’ challenges to the recent shut down orders issued by Governor Tom Wolf in response to COVID-19 on various legal grounds. Ruling that the orders were supported by a compelling public health rationale and were not a regulatory taking of property because they were temporary in nature, the court...

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OCA Affiliate member Ivy Cadle of Baker Donelson asks in his recent posting, “With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, can the government take private hotel rooms to expand the capacity to care for individuals with or exposed to the virus?” Governmental entities at every level are taking unprecedented steps to fight the COVID-19 pandemic as they work to slow transmission of the virus and to prevent health care...

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On March 13, 2020, President Trump declared a national emergency under the Stafford Act in an effort to combat the spread and transmission of COVID-19 (commonly referred to as the coronavirus). Relevant to property owners across the country, the Stafford Act allows the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to exercise the right of eminent domain to immediately acquire, not only the physical facilities it needs (like buildings...

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American Law Institute Continuing Legal Education (ALI CLE) has announced that Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation 2020 will be held on January 23-25, 2020 in Nashville, TN. The only CLE event for eminent domain practitioners with a national focus and reach, this conference features new topics, customizable content, and valuable networking opportunities, all in the heart of Music City. Many OCA members will be in attendance, both as...

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Many will recall the infamous Map Act that was adopted in North Carolina during the 1990’s. As a result the North Carolina Department of Transporation (NCDOT) recorded corridor maps that restricted the use of property in the path of several future road projects similar to negative easements. Although the North Carolina General Assembly repealed the maps in 2016, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that these restrictions amounted to...

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