--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "Skip Bernstein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If we've done nothing else, we've opened an entirely new thread.
I hadn't even realized that this happened. This puts things into greater contrast than ever. Whenever I present comparable sales in a litigation report, I use certain search parameters (size, location, sale date, etc.) and in all fairness assume the other side has what I have in terms of data. I included whatever sales there are within those parameters whether it helps or hurts my client's perspective. I bring this up because if you are going to lay out an area for condemnation (assume for the moment it is for a beneficial public purpose) you do the same thing; set impersonal and non- discriminatory parameters. If what you are saying is that certain homes were exempted from condemnation for no apparent reason other than who owned them, then there is truly something rotten in the state of Denmark. While not the same thing, something like this (discriminatory) is going on in Brooklyn with the condemnations for the new Nets arena. Forest City is paying premiums to certain owners (generally better- educated white condo and coop owners) to buy them while lowballing others (generally less well-off financially minorities) and threatening them with condemnation. In all fairness, I make most of my living in eminent domain, although I always work for the property owners. While I can see the need for it at times, being intinately familar with it, I would not want to be subject to it. It is a terrible experience. That being said, at minimum the Constitution requires that the property owner should be in "as good a position after the taking as before the taking" and the courts have been struggling with this exact task for over 200 years. The US Supreme Court may speak further on this in the Kelo case, which reading the arguments, it appears the court is trying to come to grips with this question, especially in the context of a "forced sale" which is what a condemnation amounts to. What I am especially troubled by is that I discovered that unlike NY, NJ does not provide by statute, for interest on the difference between the advance payment and the final condemnation award. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/