Eminent Domain Report

Two articles in Nossaman’s California Water Views – 2026 Outlook highlight a shifting inverse condemnation liability landscape in California—one that carries important implications for eminent domain professionals, water suppliers, utilities, public agencies and infrastructure owners alike.

Recent case law suggests that inverse condemnation exposure for water suppliers may be expanding in meaningful ways. Courts are increasingly willing to entertain claims where property owners can show they were “singled out” or disproportionately impacted by public ...

We are closely tracking the newly released Senate Bill 254 (Becker, 2025) Study Report, prepared by the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) as Administrator of the Wildfire Fund. While the report outlines several pathways to stabilize California’s insurance and energy markets, one of the most significant proposals is the recommendation to fundamentally overhaul inverse condemnation liability for utilities in California.

I. The Strict Liability Standard Under Fire

In California, courts have consistently applied inverse condemnation liability —rooted in Article I ...

During the past several years, California legislators have been pushing through new legislation to increase potential housing opportunities in California. In October, Governor Newsom signed California Senate Bill 79 (SB 79), which opens up new residential developments near rail and bus stations in major California communities. Specifically, SB 79 creates rules to override local zoning regulations related to height and density for sites near transit-oriented development stops and applies to the “urban transit communities” of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Alameda ...

The contours of inverse condemnation liability are often tested by creative California plaintiff’s lawyers. In an opinion earlier this year, one Northern California Federal Court dealt with a novel lawsuit in which the Vichy Springs Resort asserted Federal and state-based inverse condemnation theories against the City of Ukiah arising out the City’s shooting range used to train its police officers (Vichy Springs Resort v. Ukiah).

According to the complaint, guests have been visiting the resort for almost two centuries to take in the curative powers of the carbonated warm ...