California Eminent Domain Report

One issue that eminent domain attorneys face routinely involves helping businesses obtain the relocation benefits to which they are entitled under the law, while at the same time pursuing a claim for lost business goodwill.  To us, there is a clear difference between the two, as we are indoctrinated early in our careers into understanding that the two types of relief, while seemingly closely related, are instead largely unrelated in the eyes of the law.

But to a typical business owner facing a forced relocation due to a government acquisition, the issues can appear thorny and complex.  ...

I wanted to provide a quick update on some things about which we've reported over the past few months:

1.  Los Angeles Unified School District v. Casasola (2010) 187 Cal.App.4th 189

In Court Blurs Line Between Goodwill and Relocation Benefits, we reported on the Casasola decision, which expanded upon the earlier decision in Redevelopment Agency of the City of Emeryville v. Arvery Corporation (1992) 3 Cal.App.4th 1357 to hold that business owners cannot recover as lost business goodwill anything that falls within the scope of the Relocation Act, whether or not the losses are actually ...

In Los Angeles Unified School District v. Casasola (Aug. 5, 2010), the Court of Appeal examined the interrelationship between recovery of lost business goodwill pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1263.510 and recovery of relocation expenses pursuant to Government Code section 7267 et seq. 

My colleague, Gale Conner, prepared a good summary of the Casasola case detailing the facts and the Court's reasoning.  The bottom line is that the Court held that items that might be recoverable under the Relocation Act cannot be included in a claim for loss of business ...