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Legal Niches

New Jersey Eminent Domain Blog

Legal commentary on legislative issues and cases from the New Jersey Superior Courts to the United States Supreme Court, and their effect on New Jersey residents and business owners, particularly with respect to condemnation and redevelopment and their impact on private property.
By William J. Ward

Post Frequency: 0.3/day

Last Entry: February 28, 2011 at 16:00:48

Eminent domain verdict: financial crisis for Jersey City

Posted on October 08, 2008
A Hudson County jury awarded $18.6 million on September 22 to property owners Ronald, Katherine, and Lynn Kerrigan for 3.41 acres acquired by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA). The unanimous verdict was reached by 8 jurors, concluding the 10-day eminent domain trial before Judge Mark J...

Lillian Anzalone, eminent domain defendant

Posted on September 09, 2008
Lillian Anzalone died at home this morning. She was 91. Mrs. Anzalone was born in Newark on February 10, 1917. She was a buyer of women’s clothes in New York before she married Louis Anzalone in 1954. Together, the Anzalones and their son, Thomas, lived at 32 Ocean Terrace, Long Branch...

Long Branch property owners cross-petition NJ Supreme Court in eminent domain cases

Posted on September 04, 2008
William J. Ward, Esq. of Carlin & Ward; Peter H. Wegener of Bathgate Wegener & Wolf and Scott Bullock of the Institute of Justice, representing the Long Branch property owners, have cross-petitioned the New Jersey Supreme Court today in the City of Long Branch v...

Long Branch eminent domain case reversed and remanded

Posted on August 07, 2008
In a unanimous 85-page opinion, approved for publication, the Appellate Division today reversed the decision of Judge Lawson and remanded the controversial eminent domain case, City of Long Branch v. Anzalone, for a plenary hearing. The court agreed with the arguments made by the appellants that the record was devoid of the requisite substantial evidence of blight required by N...

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NJDEP required to use eminent domain in beachfront easements

Posted on July 16, 2008
In a unanimous per curiam opinion issued yesterday, July 15, 2008, the Appellate Division affirmed a lower court decision by Chancery Court Judge Vincent J. Grasso denying an injunction to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to compel beach front property owners on Long Beach Island to grant easements for beachfront replenishment...

Waiting for Eminent Domain Reform

Posted on June 16, 2008
Last Thursday’s meeting of the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee ended shortly after it began. With no quorum and two of the Democrats missing, Senator Rice withheld the eminent domain reform bills until the next meeting which, he said, the would be in a few days...

Halper Farm eminent domain verdict affirmed

Posted on May 15, 2008
The Halper family has had a long, tortuous history with the township of Piscataway regarding the acquisition of their farm. The township condemned the 75-acre farm for open space on December 10, 1999. Piscataway offered $4.326 million as its estimate of just compensation pursuant to N...

Appealing Long Branch

Posted on May 14, 2008
The Appellate Division heard three hours of arguments from the assembled attorneys representing Long Branch property owners and the city of Long Branch. The argument before the media and a standing room crowd of spectators included the property owners, their families, and interested parties to the eminent domain issues...

MEDIA ADVISORY: City of Long Branch v. Anzalone

Posted on May 12, 2008
MEDIA ADVISORY: City of Long Branch v. AnzaloneThe Appellate Division of the Superior Court will hear oral arguments tomorrow in two eminent domain cases, City of Long Branch v. Anzalone and City of Long Branch v. Brower, on the 5th floor of the Richard J...

NJ Eminent Domain Reform Year Three

Posted on May 04, 2008
Tomorrow May 5 at 10 a.m., the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee will take up S-757, the latest version of eminent domain reform, sponsored by Senator Ronald Rice. To read the most recent amendments, download bill S-757. The meeting will take place in Committee Room 7 on the second floor of State House Annex, Trenton, New Jersey...

'Show me' eminent domain in Missouri

Posted on April 09, 2008
In a significant case, widely anticipated by the eminent domain bar, the Missouri Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling which would have blocked communities from using eminent domain for private development supported by tax concessions on March 18, 2008...

Fencing with eminent domain: All hat on the Texas border

Posted on February 29, 2008
"They're going to put up some fence, and it's going to be in Eagle Pass just to make an example of the mouthy mayor of Eagle Pass." – Mayor Chad Foster, as quoted in the Houston Chronicle.The Bush administration’s decision to move forward with condemnation to acquire the necessary easements for the construction of the border fence makes very little sense...

Due process issue in three redevelopment cases gives notice to Harrison

Posted on February 26, 2008
NOTICE: YOUR PROPERTY MAY BE CONDEMNED. If you own a property in an "area in need of redevelopment," (a.k.a blighted area") you would expect to see those exact words at the top of the notice you receive from a municipality. The notice issue was first discussed on this blog in a commentary about the Shennett case, when the Passaic Redevelopment Agency justified taking Charlie Shennett's land and said they did what they were legally required to do...

Proposed eminent domain reform in NJ enters third year

Posted on February 16, 2008
Three's a charm. New Jersey's promised eminent domain reform enters its third year after many iterations of the bill, passed by the Assembly in 2006, failed in the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee in 2007, and reintroduced and referred on January 8 to the Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee as A1492...

Eminent Domain in New Jersey Seminar: April 17, 2008

Posted on January 25, 2008
SAVE THE DATE...William J. Ward, Esq., author of the New Jersey Eminent Domain Law Blog, will moderate the Lorman Education seminar Eminent Domain in New Jersey for the third consecutive year on Thursday, April 17, 2008, in North Brunswick, New Jersey...

Don't fence me in with eminent domain

Posted on January 24, 2008
"Even in the most egregious eminent domain cases, the party whose land is being taken is given his or her day in court. The people of Texas should be outraged by the sneaky, underhanded methods used by the Department of Homeland Security....Informing the city after the judge ruled that there land is already taken is not the Texan or American way of justice...

NJ ICLE Redevelopment Law Institute Friday January 25

Posted on January 20, 2008
The New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education will hold its 2008 Redevelopment Law Institute on Friday January 25 in New Brunswick featuring The Impact of Gallenthin v. Paulsboro and Other Recent Cases. Several cases following the Gallenthin decision have affected municipalities' use of eminent domain in redevelopment efforts...

Take the D-Train for eminent domain reform

Posted on January 16, 2008
There was one eminent domain bill passed in New Jersey -- on January 13, 2008, to be exact. No, it was not a reform of the Local Redevelopment Housing Law, long considered by the Legislature, passed by the Assembly, and never voted out of the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee...

Pay-to-Play Hoboken

Posted on January 10, 2008
Pay-to-play remains at the heart of the problem in New Jersey redevelopment and the authorization of eminent domain. Simply put, developers contribute to the campaigns of mayors and council members; and, in turn, the mayor and council designate the developer for the project and use the municipal power of eminent domain to acquire properties needed to assemble the project area...

Recovering litigation costs when condemnation is abandoned

Posted on December 28, 2007
West Orange v. 769 Associates LLC (A-5677-05)In an unanimous decision of the Appellate Division issued on December 24, 2007, and approved for publication, Judge Jose Fuentes writing for the panel, ruled that a property owner can recover litigation costs under the provision in the Eminent Domain Act, N...

Rebuilding Asbury Park: Hopes dashed for Esperanza

Posted on December 16, 2007
"Asbury Partners is very sad that the current financing and real estate market has caused Metro to suspend construction on the Esperanza." -- Larry FishmanIn 2006, the demolition of the C-8 steel skeleton, a symbol of redevelopment failure, gave hope to Esperanza, the high-rise residential tower undertaken by developer Dean Geibel and president of Metro Homes...

A Mosque, Open Space and Eminent Domain

Posted on December 05, 2007
United States District Court Judge Peter G. Sheridan issued an opinion on November 29 on a motion to amend the complaint in Albanian Associated Fund v. Township of Wayne. This case involves eminent domain, open space, and land use regulations in the context of proposed religious use, the building of a Muslim mosque on 11 acres in Wayne Township, New Jersey...

RLUIPA, Redevelopment, and Eminent Domain

Posted on December 02, 2007
The decision in Lighthouse Institute for Evangelism v. City of Long Branch, rendered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on November 27, has national implications for religious use, zoning regulations, and eminent domain. In its precedent setting 96-page opinion, the Third Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of the City of Long Branch against Reverend Kevin Brown and the Lighthouse Institute for Evangelism in their attempt to establish a church at 162 Broadway within the Broadway Corridor Redevelopment area...

No eminent domain reform bill in N.J.

Posted on November 30, 2007
Mark Twain said, “There are two things you should never watch being made: sausage and legislation.” Heeding that advice, I saved myself a trip to Trenton and listened to yesterday’s Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on eminent domain reform on my computer...

Going Home: Remembering Long Branch eminent domain activist Anna DeFaria

Posted on November 17, 2007
While she waited for the next round in the eminent domain fight against the City of Long Branch, Anna DeFaria, 82, lost her battle with ovarian cancer. Last Wednesday, she died at home. Home was the modest, oceanfront cottage that DeFaria and her husband, Antone, owned since 1960...

Do you need a high I.Q. to understand eminent domain law?

Posted on November 10, 2007
After reading the list of Best Law Blogs that made the top ten in the 2007 Weblog Awards, we noted that the Volokh Conspiracy (Ranked #3 in the poll) posts the reading level of their blog at Junior High School level. So we were curious to see what our reading level is, and after testing it three times...

Just compensation: Do Indian SEZ steal from the poor?

Posted on November 08, 2007
posted by Priya Prakash Royal"The future of the Indian people and Indian democracy rests on the land question. While the Government is forced to pause in its inhuman project of land grab, let the farmers and the democratic forces of the country join in evolving charter and an agenda for land sovereignty...

New Jersey Turnpike Widening

Posted on October 23, 2007
The New Jersey Turnpike is the fifth busiest road in the nation and the proposed widening between exits 6 and 9 will be one of the biggest public works projects ever undertaken in the state. Preliminary plans, displayed at four public hearings last month, call for the six lane highway to be expanded to 12 lanes from Mansfield to Cranbury and for an expansion of toll plazas at exits 7, 7A, 8, and 8A...

CLE International Eminent Domain Conference in N.J.

Posted on October 13, 2007
William J. Ward and James M. Turteltaub will speak on Monday, October 15, 2007, at the 3rd Annual CLE International Eminent Domain Conference at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, N.J. On Monday October 15, Mr. Turteltaub and Stephen Eisdorfer of Hill Wallack will discuss best practices in their presentation, "Appealing the Case...

Ethics, Redevelopment and Eminent Domain

Posted on September 12, 2007
September 2007 will go down in history as a month of infamy for New Jersey. The headlines in the state’s major newspapers featured the sentencing of former Ocean Township Mayor and Asbury Park Manager Terrence Weldon for accepting $64,000 in bribes from developers; the federal indictment of 11 municipal officials from Passaic, Paterson, Newark, Orange and Pleasantville on bribery charges in a sting operation...

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