Eminent Domain Report

This seems like common sense, but a public agency cannot pursue an inverse condemnation cause of action for damages suffered from its own public improvements. Yet that is exactly what the County of Santa Cruz recently attempted against another local public agency. The Court denied leave to amend to add an inverse condemnation cause of action and left unanswered a significant policy question on whether a public agency can pursue a claim for inverse condemnation at all, or whether inverse condemnation only applies to damages to private (not public) property. … 

We recently detailed Senate Bill 254, which overhauls California’s approach to wildfires. In addition to promoting new transmission facilities, replenishing the wildfire fund, streamlining the siting process and exempting underground plans, there was a notable addition that has not received as much attention: the Natural Catastrophe Resilience Study. There’s a great article by Travis Ritchie, California Wonders if it is Doing Wildfire Risk All Wrong, that covers this topic. In particular, he notes that utilities in California are vulnerable to wildfire liability ...

With the recent flurry of coastal law bills before the California State Legislature and the myriad headlines advising that we must retreat from the shore, sea level rise (SLR) and related climate change topics remain front and center in California. Join our Water Industry Group on May 27, 2021 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PT for "Living on the Edge: Managing Sea Level Rise in California" as we sort through the pending legislation and discuss the basis for this ever-increasing concern with the encroaching ocean.

Comprised of attorneys from Nossaman’s Water, Environment & Land Use and ...