Eminent Domain Report

On the first day of Christmas my client came to me and asked: “who holds title to the partridge in a pear tree that is within our new proposed right-of-way?” I replied that a partridge is a wild animal and not typically subject to private ownership, however if the landowner claims it is a “pet”, it would be considered personal property.

On the second day of Christmas, my client asked me “what do we do if we find two turtle doves on the property that we need to condemn for a new highway?” I said let’s get a right-of-entry from the landowner to do a survey and environmental testing and hope turtle doves aren’t on the endangered species list.

On the third day of Christmas, my client asked me “what do we do about the three French hens that are roaming on the property?” I replied that we will need to compensate the landowner for a new fence to keep the hens out of our right-of-way.

On the fourth day of Christmas, the landowner’s attorney left me four messages about the calling birds that escaped because the surveyor left the gate open.

On the fifth day of Christmas my client exclaimed: “Can you believe the landowner’s appraiser made FIVE ECONOMIC UNITS out of the subject property?

On the sixth day of Christmas a Special Commissioners Hearing was held and to my surprise the landowner brought six geese and testified that they would not lay eggs due to the condemnation and demanded compensation for his loss.

On the seventh day of Christmas my client asked me to condemn private property to be used as a public park so that everyone could enjoy the seven swans a-swimming.

On the eighth day of Christmas our appraiser told me that he saw eight maids a milking during his site inspection of the property so he would be adding the Income Approach to his appraisal.

On the ninth day of Christmas our appraiser called to tell me that he is thinking about changing the Highest & Best use of the property after seeing the nine ladies dancing.

On the tenth day of Christmas my client told me that there were ten men dressed up as lords leaping into our detention pond, so I called the contractor and asked him to immediately install a fence around the detention pond.

On the eleventh day of Christmas the landowner’s attorney called me to discuss temporary damages for the eleven pipers piping; I referred him to the Schmidt case and told him that “community damages” are not compensable.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, I received a Petition for Inverse Condemnation seeking damages for the noise caused by the traffic from everyone coming to see the twelve drummers drumming. I called the landowner’s attorney and suggested they get some earplugs since noise is a “community damage” which the Felts case held is not compensable.

I hope you found this humorous lighthearted retelling of a Christmas Classic enjoyable. Since we all work hard during the year, I wanted to have some fun with my blog post at this time of year. Season’s Greeting!!

Wishing everyone a safe & Happy New Year!!