Real Estate & Property Law

Overrule Williamson County

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

On November 25, 2008, the Supreme Court will consider whether to review the Sixth Circuit's decision in Braun v. Ann Arbor Charter Township, 519 F.3d 564 (6th Cir. 2008), a decision we analyzed here. The petition expressly asks the Court to overrule Williamson County.  We've detailed the kafkaesque nature of the Williamson County rule many times, most recently here (in a post about another pending petition which asks the Court to overrule the case).  Here are the briefs in Braun:

• Petition for writ of certiorari

• Brief in Opposition

• Reply Brief in Response to the BIO

• Brief amicus curiae of National Association of Homebuilders

The Court's docket report is available here. The cert petition contains three Questions Presented:

1.     Should the Court overrule Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City insofar as it requires property owners to seek compensation in state court to ripen a federal takings claim, where four justices of this Court declared in San Remo Hotel v. City and County of San Francisco that such a rule is ?mistaken? due to its lack of doctrinal underpinning and preclusive effect on federal jurisdiction?

2.     Is a property owner barred from bringing a procedural due process claim against a defective land use hearing simply because the owner also raised a regulatory takings claim subject to Williamson County, as the Sixth Circuit has held, or does the procedural due process claim supply an independent basis for constitutional relief, as the Ninth and Fifth Circuits have held?

3.     Can a property owner raise a procedural due process challenge to a land use permit decision based on a fee simple interest in the affected land, as the Ninth and Seventh Circuits have held, or must the owner have an ?entitlement? to the desired permit, as the Sixth Circuit held?

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on November 14, 2008 (boomark / email).