California Eminent Domain Report

As any experienced California eminent domain lawyer knows, there is a unique statutory mechanism that allows parties to bring a legal issues motion to secure a court’s ruling on a litany of issues that impact compensation. This statutory right is set forth in Code of Civil Procedure section 1260.040 and reads as follows:

"(a)          If there is a dispute between plaintiff and defendant over an evidentiary or other legal issue affecting the determination of compensation, either party may move the court for a ruling on the issue.  The motion shall be made not later than 60 days before ...

On Tuesday, March 20, beginning at 11:30 a.m. PT, Chapter One of the International Right of Way Association (IRWA) will be holding a joint luncheon with the Southern California Chapter of the Appraisal Institute at Luminarias Restaurant in Monterey Park, CA. Nossaman’s  Litigation Department Chair and Co-Chair of its Real Estate Practice Group, David Graeler, will serve as the luncheon speaker, providing a presentation entitled Scenarios to Consider Appraising without USPAP. To register, please visit the IRWA Ch. 1 website here.

The International Right of Way Association is a ...

It’s a Friday afternoon and I decided to take a quick look at the advance sheets for any newly decided appellate cases involving eminent domain. My search revealed an unpublished decision that came out yesterday (September 7, 2017) called Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency v. Souza, 2017 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 6117. I’ll provide the highlights below.

Facts:

This matter involved an acquisition by the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SACFA) of approximately 2.2 acres of land for the Natomas Levee Improvement Program. The acquisition was needed to widen the levee along ...

On February 9, 2017, California Assembly Member Phillip Chen (a Republican from the 55^th district) introduced Assembly Bill 408 (AB 408).  You can find a copy of the bill here.  AB 408 is styled as an act to amend Section 1250.410 of the Code of Civil Procedure relating to eminent domain.  There is very little history available on AB 408 and it appears that the next action is for it to be heard in committee on March 12, 2017.  If AB 408 is ultimately approved in its current form, it would radically change the standards by which courts decide whether or not to award litigation expenses in eminent ...

There has been a lot of news lately concerning President Trump’s desire to build a border wall. Many of the articles focus on the efficacy, costs and practical challenges of building the wall.  But the discussions are also starting to move into our world of eminent domain.  An Op Ed piece in the Washington Post  talks about Donald Trump’s Great Wall of Eminent Domain and mentions that 67 percent of the nearly 2,000 border miles constitute private and state-owned lands. The Daily Beast published an article called The Great Wall of Trump Would Be the Ultimate Eminent Domain Horror Show ...

Last summer, I wrote about the Appraisal Institute’s controversial effort to promote legislation in California (known as AB 624) that would enable licensed real estate appraisers performing appraisals for non-federally-related transactions to use any nationally or internationally recognized standard of valuation. I commented at the time that it wasn’t difficult to envision a parade of horribles that might result should appraisers be permitted to identify obscure international standards for an appraisal assignment in order to drive value up or down for a litigant.

Not ...

Six weeks ago, I wrote about California Assembly Bill 624 and the Appraisal Institute’s effort to change California law that presently requires all licensed appraisers to comply with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP).  While the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) would still mandate that USPAP be followed for federally-related transactions (i.e. appraisals for a financial institution that is federally insured), I observed that a licensed appraiser in California performing an appraisal for a ...

Two days ago, the Appraisal Foundation issued a memorandum to Appraisal Regulatory System Stakeholders that warned of the Appraisal Institute approaching members of Congress to sponsor legislation that would essentially dismantle the current national appraiser regulatory system.  The Appraisal Foundation states that provisions being suggested by the Appraisal Institute include the elimination of the Appraisal Subcommittee and the removal or significant dilution of the Congressional authority of the Appraisal Foundation."  It asserts that removing the existing ...

As the old adage goes, the three most important things to consider with real estate are location, location, and location.  But any developer who has lived through a real estate cycle, and any public agency that is under a funding deadline or working through a project’s environmental approvals, knows that timing may be even more important than location.  Indeed, timing considerations often create competing interests between public agencies and developers.  On the one hand, before commencing right of way acquisition, public agencies are required to comply with complicated ...

This is the question John G. Ellis, MAI addressed at the IRWA Chapter 1 Fall Seminar last Tuesday. Mr. Ellis divided his presentation into four distinct questions:

1. What is the current state of the market;
2. How did we get to where we are now;
3. What are the trends looking forward; and
4. Have we hit bottom yet?

The picture painted by Mr. Ellis [PDF] was befitting of the Halloween season, and in some cases was downright depressing. Most submarkets are demonstrating reduced sales volumes, lower rents, higher cap rates, and lower sale prices. Mr. Ellis demonstrated how a 1.25% increase in the ...