Eminent Domain Report

In Wang v. Peletta, the California Court of Appeal held that property owners cannot acquire a prescriptive easement to maintain an encroaching structure if that structure was built without required permits and constitutes an abatable public nuisance.

In Wang, homeowners built a retaining wall and related improvements without first obtaining the required permits or a survey. They believed the work was on their own property, but it actually encroached significantly onto their neighbor's land. The county later issued citations to the homeowners requiring correction of the code ...

A question that arises with some frequency in our practice is whether a public entity can adversely possess a property interest against another public entity. The general rule of thumb is that a private entity cannot obtain an interest in real property owned by a public entity through adverse possession. This rule is in part based off of the long-established principle nullum tempus occurrit regi, which means "time does not run against the king."

In California, this common law principle has been affirmed and reaffirmed for over a century in our courts and has been codified by the ...