Real Estate & Property Law

Key Player in Penn Central Case Obit

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

The New York Times posts the obituary of Dorothy Miner, a key player in the case that resulted in Penn Central Trans. Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104 (1978), the U.S. Supreme Court case that gave us the three-part "ad hoc" regulatory takings test:

She played an important role in the critical 1978 case of Penn Central Transportation Company v. New York City, which upheld the landmark status of Grand Central Terminal and set national precedents.

Intimately familiar with preservation law, Ms. Miner was meticulous when making her case ? another way to put it was that she was a fierce, immovable stickler ? and could infuriate allies as well as adversaries with her insistence on principle and procedure.

?We spent eight hours arguing over every sentence,? Leonard Koerner, the chief assistant corporation counsel of New York City, said in recalling what it was like to work with Ms. Miner at the print shop on the legal briefs in the Penn Central case.

Eventually, the United States Supreme Court upheld the landmark designation of the terminal against a challenge by Penn Central, which owned the building and asserted that landmark status effectively amounted to an unconstitutional taking of property by the government.

Professor Gideon Kanner provides further backstory on the Penn Central case here.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on October 24, 2008 (boomark / email).