Every year, the Hawaii State Bar Association’s Real Property and Financial Services Sections asks my partner Greg Kugle and me to present a Litigation Update for its members. We review the recent national and Hawaii court decisions impacting real estate, ranging from land use litigation, real estate closings, foreclosures, CC&R interpretation and more.
Our presentation
Our most viewed post was on the topic of bananas. Strange fare for a law blog, but yes, there is law on bananas that are on my neighbor’s tree but that are on my side of the property line. Good fences make good neighbors (Mr. Frost may disagree), but free bananas mean banana
Of late, residents in Kailua have bemoaned the state of public facilities to cope with an increasing tourist population. Public facilities created haphazardly over the last century can easily be overwhelmed with the increased traffic stemming from the ease of information about those facilities. "If you build it, they will come" gives way
We came across this video on the National Park Service’s attempt to obtain a “ground water management area designation” for the Keauhou Aquifer System Area on Hawaii Island. The petition and supporting exhibits can be found here.
The County of Hawaii objects to such a designation which would keep the regulation of the
It is a rare day that my legal interests of zoning law and ocean governance are discussed in a single case, but thanks to the South Carolina Supreme Court, I must say:
The case is Carnival Corporation v. Historic Ansonborough Neighborhood Association and the original opinion can be found here.
In South Carolina, several
I am pleased to announce that the Condemnation Committee of the American Bar Association's Section on Litigation is presenting a teleconference "roundtable" on the timely subject of natural disasters and property rights.The talk is entitled "Thinking Out Loud: Property Rights After Natural Disasters". Register here.A synopsis:
Over one-half of the people in the United
During a recent trip to New London, we stopped by to visit Ms. Kelo’s property that was the subject of the Kelo v. New London litigation.
It isn't often my day job doing land use and condemnation litigation overlaps with my maritime interests, but the Ninth Circuit just published a decision that comes awfully close.
The case is Samson v. City of Bainbridge Island and the opinion can be found here.
The facts: the City of Bainbridge Island issued a
Yesterday, I was honored to chair a program in Honolulu covering eminent domain, land use and Honolulu’s rail project.
Topics covered included public use, Kelo, burial law, bid protests, transit oriented development, valuation in condemnations and ethics for condemnation practitioners.
Co-presenters included Hawaii law bloggers, Robert H. Thomas, Anna H. Oshiro and Jesse Souki.
I put together a quick Legal Alert update on the West Linn Corporate Park v. City of West Linn case which is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. It will be about two weeks until we receive word if the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case.
In the meantime,