Property Rights and Eminent Domain: Court Overturns Condemnation Victory On Right to Take Where Taking Did Not Result in Landlocked Parcel
September 27, 2012
By Matthew Hinks
In an opinion containing echoes of the United States Supreme Court's controversial and much maligned decision in Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), the California Court of Appeal has limited the reach of California Code of Civil Procedure § 1240.350(a). That section provides that a condemning agency that takes property resulting in the property being "cut off from . . . access to a public road", may also take property belonging to another party to provide alternative access to the original property. The Court of Appeal in Council of San Benito County Governments v. Hollister Inn, Inc., limited Section 1240.350(a) to situations where the taking leaves the original property completely landlocked.
