An eight-year fight between the state and a former Milwaukee storage yard owner over a sunken barge is going back to the courthouse where it all began.

Tagged with: barge Basil Ryan Eminent domain JoAnne Kloppenburg Menomonee River Thomas Cooper

A developer who sued the state to get more money for property taken through eminent domain now must return some of the original payment.

Tagged with: District IV Court of Appeals Eminent domain Murphy Desmond Supreme Court Wisconsin Department of Transportation

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of a Milwaukee property owner assessed the costs of removing a sunken barge from the Menomonee River. At issue is the doctrine of “judicial estoppel,” which provides that a party ...

Tagged with: barge Basil Ryan Court of Appeals Department of Justice Eminent domain judicial estoppel Menomonee River Supreme Court Wisconsin Department of Transportation WisDOT

Property owners who successfully contest what they receive in eminent domain proceedings can recover litigation expenses, regardless of whether they appeal from a jurisdictional offer or a negotiated price.

Tagged with: Eminent domain Shirley Abrahamson Wisconsin Supreme Court

Property Eminent domain; good faith This appeal arises out of five consolidated cases brought by landowners challenging the condemnation of their property by American Transmission Company LLC and ATC Management, Inc. (collectively, ATC). The landowners challenge ATC’s right to condemn ...

Tagged with: Civil Digest Eminent domain Good faith Property Property Digest WI Court of Appeals Digest

Property Eminent domain; litigation expenses Litigation expenses may be awarded if an appeal is taken from a negotiated price. “Evaluating the statutory language of Wis. Stat. § 32.28(3)(d) and § 32.06(2a) within the context of the comprehensive condemnation statutes, we ...

Tagged with: Civil Digest Eminent domain litigation expenses LLC Property Property Digest SCOTUS Digest

State Sen. Fred Risser might have more firsthand knowledge of eminent domain than any other member of the Wisconsin Legislature. Dane County in 2002 forced the Madison Democrat to sell his law office, at South Hamilton and West Wilson streets, ...

Tagged with: Eminent domain Fred Risser

The abuse of eminent domain in the United States is at least as old as the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26 (1954), in which the court shamelessly held that confiscating the property of homeowners and business owners, in order to transfer it to politically-connected cronies, was a valid public use, comparable to building a public road.

Tagged with: Eminent domain U.S. Supreme Court

Saying the owner of a sunken barge in Milwaukee was a “textbook example of a litigant playing fast and loose with the judicial system,” an appellate court judge Tuesday upheld more than $37,000 in environmental penalties. The case stems from ...

Tagged with: barge Basil Ryan Department of Justice Department of Natural Resources DNR Eminent domain environment Menomonee River Thomas Cooper Wisconsin Department of Transportation WisDOT

Property Eminent domain; public use The Van Stelles and the Schnells challenge the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s condemnation of their land for highway exit and entrance ramps. They assert that the condemnation violates the constitutional “public use” requirement because the ...

Tagged with: Eminent domain Property Digest

Property Eminent domain; notice A clerk of circuit court needs to comply strictly with the notice requirements in sec. 32.06(8) in order to commence the sixty-day time limit for an appeal pursuant to sec. 32.06(10). “The supreme court has quoted ...

Tagged with: Eminent domain notice Property Digest