Real Estate & Property Law

Overrule Williamson County: Agripost Cert Petititon A "Petition To Watch"

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

Thank you to several of our readers for pointing out that SCOTUSblog has determined that Agripost, LLC v. Miami-Dade County, Florida, No. 08-567 (cert. petition filed Oct. 27, 2008) is a "petition to watch" for the Supreme Court's March 27, 2009 conference.

The petition asks the Court to overrule Williamson County Regional Planning Comm'n v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, 473 U.S. 172 (1985), the decision that gave us the weird ripeness rules in regulatory takings. The two Questions Presented:

Question 1. Should the Court overrule Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank insofar as it denies property owners the right to litigate their federal causes of action in federal court, the same as all other constitutionally aggrieved citizens, and forces them to seek compensation in state court ostensibly to ripen their federal constitutional takings claims, where four Justices of this Court declared in San Remo Hotel v. City and County of San Francisco that the Williamson County rule is "mistaken" due to its lack of doctrinal underpinning and incoherent effect on federal jurisdiction?

Question 2. Where settled 11th Circuit law has for decades provided that a property owner following the Williamson County rule of state court ripening litigation may "reserve" federal issues for federal court trial, and in fact the 11th Circuit expressly so ordered in an earlier appeal of this case, can the property owner be punished for obeying such an order by having its eventual federal court suit dismissed on the basis of issue preclusion?

Here are the briefs:  

• Petition

• Brief in Opposition

• Reply Brief
  

• Pacific Legal Foundation amicus

• National Association of Home Builders, and Franklin P. Kottschade amicus

• Michigan State Bar - Real Property Law Section amicus

The Court has already denied one petition asking it to overrule Williamson County this Term, and denied another involving ripeness issues.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on March 20, 2009 (boomark / email).