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U.S. Supreme Court Will Decide Property Owners' Right to Access Federal Courts

The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 10 agreed to hear a case involving hotel owners in San Francisco who have been unable to bring a takings claim before a federal court.

As part of its ongoing efforts to enable property owners to seek just compensation from the federal courts when a government action denies them the use of their property, NAHB is filing an amicus brief supporting the hotel owners. In these takings cases, landowners find themselves in a bind; they are required to take their case to state court first and then they are unable to file in federal court because they have already litigated in state court.

In 1993, the owners of the San Remo Hotel filed a federal court action alleging that a San Francisco ordinance restricting the long-standing use of their property as a hotel amounted to a taking. The property owners lost, and subsequently filed a federal court action seeking just compensation under the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In San Remo Hotel, LP v. City and County of San Francisco, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the property owners were precluded from bringing their claim in federal court because they had already litigated in state court. In particular, the Ninth Circuit expressly declined to follow a decision by the Second Circuit in Santini v. Connecticut Hazardous Waste Management Service, which allowed property owner to have access to federal court after litigation in a state court.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case in March. Any amicus briefs supporting the property owners are due on or about Jan. 24. 

For more information on NAHB's position on the case, e-mail Duane Desiderio, NAHB’s vice president of litigation, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8146.

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