$22.5 Million Victory

You may recall a prior blog post regarding a case where we proved a "de facto" taking of a property.  A "de facto" condemnation – sometimes known as an "inverse condemnation" – occurs when a condemnor's actions cause the equivalent of a taking before a declaration of taking is filed.  Our client was in the process of developing a property for residential condominiums.  PennDOT did not initiate a condemnation action until May, 2009.  We established that PennDOT's actions caused a taking in December 2006.  As a result, the property will now be valued as of December 2006 and not May 2009.

We recently tried the damages part of the case before a "Board of View."  PennDOT alleged the value of the condemned property was $6.75 million.  We presented evidence that the value was $25 million.  The Board entered an award of $22.5 million.