The abuse of eminent domain—where government takes private property against the owner’s will—is a nationwide problem. But New York property owners face a particularly outrageous system not only fraught with abuse, but set up to prevent property owners from challenging such abuse under state procedures.
On Wednesday, October 4, the Institute for Justice will file a federal lawsuit to change that.
"New York’s eminent domain law defies both common sense and the Constitution," said Dana Berliner, a senior attorney for the Institute for Justice, which is representing the property owners for free. "In New York, there are only 30 days when you can object to the government taking your property to give it to another private party. Those 30 days come and go without any individual notice to the owner, a proper hearing, or notice of the right to appeal, all of which are required by the Constitution. Those who face the loss of a home, business or church receive less due process than a kid being suspended from school."
Worse, property owners’ tiny window to defend the right to their property comes before the government even tries to take it. Unless owners happen to see one of those small-print legal notices stuck in the back of a newspaper, and, within 30 days, file a challenge to a possible future condemnation of their property, the state tells owners they have waived their constitutional property rights.
"This system is like forcing athletes to appeal all bad calls before the game has even begun," said Institute for Justice President Chip Mellor. "It’s a system perfectly designed to trip up those without legal expertise and deprive them of their constitutional rights."
Among those scheduled to speak at a media conference announcing the filing of a federal challenge to these procedures will be three property owners who stand to lose their properties if these abuses aren’t halted: William Minnich, co-owner of Minic Custom Woodwork in East Harlem; Bill Brody, who purchased and renovated four buildings in Port Chester, New York; and Pastor Fred Jenkins, pastor of St. Luke’s Pentecostal Church in North Hempstead on Long Island, as well as the Institute for Justice’s Mellor and Berliner.
