Real Estate & Property Law

Seizure of Business

By Alan Ackerman

 Vindy

The city seeks to demolish the machine shop for a street extension for a YSU project.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city law director wants a magistrate to hand over a small machine shop to the city under eminent domain, and then let a jury decide what compensation the shop owner should receive for his property.

A hearing will be at 9 a.m. Dec. 10 on the city’s motion to seize and demolish the business for a street extension in conjunction with Youngstown State University’s new $34.3 million business school.

Magistrate Dennis Sarisky of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court set the hearing on this and other motions in the city’s lawsuit that seeks to take the Grenga Machine & Welding Co. machine shop and storage facility at 128 W. Rayen Ave.

The city plans to tear down the Grenga building to make way for a northward extension of Hazel Street designed to link the university with the city’s downtown.

The university broke ground for the new business school this fall.

Iris Torres Guglucello, city law director, said the city’s position is that the law requires Sarisky to order the property turned over to the city.

After the Dec. 10 hearing, the only issue that should remain for a jury trial is how much compensation Joseph Grenga should receive for his property, Torres Guglucello said.

Here is all that is wrong with individuals representing themselves in condemnation cases. Without knowing whether his defense is valid, Mr. Grenga relied upon a non-lawyer to file a 'friend of the court' pleading in Mr. Grenga's defense. Does the owner not have a valid claim? There are any number of outstanding lawyers in Ohio who would have represented him. This is not good for the individual owner nor our democracy.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on November 24, 2008 (boomark / email).