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Arlington, Va.—Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 14, 2008), Long Branch, N.J., homeowners will take their fight to defend their homes from eminent domain abuse to the state appeals court.

Lori Vendetti and approximately a dozen other Long Branch homeowners are fighting the city’s effort to replace their middle-class oceanfront homes with high-end condos for the wealthy.  Vendetti said, “Our home means everything to us.  It is not merely a brick structure.  My father worked hard to have this house built in 1960 and it has always been a part of our family.  I’ll continue to fight until there’s no eminent domain abuse hanging over us.  We hope the court will find in our favor and end this nightmare so we can all get on with our lives.”

Vendetti said, “People should not be forced out of their homes for someone else’s private development.  We have to take a stand and hopefully our homes will be saved.  We hope to help other people throughout New Jersey so this cannot happen again.”

The New Jersey Appellate Division argument will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, in the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex at 25 Market Street in Trenton, N.J.

The Institute for Justice—the organization that litigated the Kelo eminent domain case before the U.S. Supreme Court and spearheaded nationwide reform known as “the Kelo backlash”—will argue on behalf of homeowners from Long Branch, N.J.’s MTOTSA neighborhood.  In the 1990s, IJ successfully defended the home of Atlantic City, N.J., homeowner Vera Coking after Donald Trump convinced a state agency to take her land for his private use.

The Long Branch homeowners are appealing a June 2006 trial court ruling that rubberstamped the city government’s decision to hand over their cherished homes to a private developer.  Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Scott Bullock, who argued the Kelo case, and local attorney Peter Wegener will ask the three-judge panel to throw out the city’s condemnations or, at minimum, send the case back to the trial court for the presentation of abundant evidence on why bulldozing MTOTSA violates the laws and Constitution of New Jersey.  The homeowners will rely on recent New Jersey decisions, including last summer’s Gallenthin case, which struck down a bogus “blight” designation and stopped the abuse of eminent domain for private economic development.  That is exactly what is taking place in Long Branch.

Long Branch homeowner Denise Hoagland, said, “What Long Branch is doing is a blatant abuse of government power and the courts need to stop it.  It’s very difficult to live oppressed for so long, much more difficult than people can imagine.”

The homeowners will argue that the trial court should have dismissed the condemnations because Long Branch violated New Jersey redevelopment law in wrongly declaring much of the city “blighted.”  None of the evidence submitted by the city in the blight designation satisfied the standards spelled out in the state’s blight statute.  Cities like Long Branch often declare vast swaths of ordinary property “blighted” because “blight” triggers the power to take valuable land away from one owner and transfer it to another.  As in the Long Branch case, these transfers are typically from people of modest means to powerful private developers.

Homeowners will rally with supporters and their attorneys on Wednesday, May 14, at 8:20 a.m. in front of the Hughes Justice Complex, where the appellate court is located.

Bullock said, “The Long Branch case represents one of the worst abuses of eminent domain in the nation today.  But now the homeowners are finally having their day in court.  We are confident that the appellate court will vindicate the rights of these homeowners who simply wish to keep their tiny patches of paradise along the shore they worked so hard to obtain.”

The plight of the Long Branch homeowners presents the Appellate Division with an opportunity to affirm that the laws and Constitution of New Jersey protect the rights of hardworking citizens across the state.

“A person’s right to own his or her home should not depend on the plans of tax-hungry cities and land-hungry private developers,” said IJ Staff Attorney Jeff Rowes.  “The Appellate Division should either throw out the condemnations because there is no evidence of blight or at least send the case back to the trial court to allow the homeowners to present evidence, which is something the trial court refused to let them do the first time.”

Rowes said, “Property rights protection in the courts is even more important in New Jersey than elsewhere because the General Assembly has repeatedly refused to reform the state’s eminent domain laws.”