In ( www.gideonstrumpet.info/?p=1043 ), we recently took note of the latest issue of Norman Oder’s report (the Atlantic Yards Report) covering the recent conference on eminent domain in New York, which took place at Fordham University. He has now dropped the other shoe and has posted Part 2 of his report on that conference. It’s his usual good work, and we recommend that you read it if you are interested in eminent domain in New York. Which is sort of like being interested in the processsing of [intellectual and moral] garbage. No reflection on Mr. Oder’s work — he only tells it like it is. We have characterized New York law of eminent domain as the sub-basement, if not the sewer, of the law.
If you think we are being too harsh in thus expressing our opinion, reflect on the fact that in New York, there is no trial on the right to take. No witnesses are sworn, no one is cross-examined, and no evidence (as that term is understood in American law) is presented. There is no discovery. The condemning agency makes a unilateral decision to take, and if you don’t like it, you can ask for review of it by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (which is their name for the intermediate appellate court — what everybody else calls the state Supreme Court they call the Court of Appeals). And of course, since the Appellate Division is is an appellate court, there are no witnesses, no evidence, no discovery, no nothin’. In the usual course of things the appellate judges just rubber-stamp whatever the condemnor says, and away we go. You do get a trial on valuation, but no jury.
This part of the Oder report covers the presentations of academics who attended this conference. Go to http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2011/04/ay-eminent-domain-decision-among-worst.html