Real Estate & Property Law

Oral Argument Scheduled in Kona Eminent Domain Appeals: Damages for Failed Condemnations, Abatement, and Pretext

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

The Supreme Court of Hawaii has scheduled oral arguments in County of Hawaii v. Richards, No. 28882, the consolidated appeal from two eminent domain lawsuits filed by the County in 2000 and 2005.  The issues in the case include:

• application of Haw. Rev. Stat. § 101-27 (1993), the statute that provides that the government must make a property owner whole and pay damages when an attempt to take property by eminent domain is discontinued or dismissed

• whether the government may concurrently prosecute more than one condemnation lawsuit to take the same property, at the same time

• the standards for demonstrating that the government's claim of public use is pretext to hide private benefit

The briefs are posted here, and a summary of the case and the trial court's findings are here.  The argument will be held on Thursday, October 16, 2008, at 9:00 a.m. in the Supreme Court courtroom at the Judiciary Building.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on August 20, 2008 (boomark / email).