October Professor's Corner Webinar: Common Interest Communities

It's that time again, this month's Professors’ Corner Webinar.  A FREE monthly webinar which features a panel of law professors, discussing recent cases or issues of interest to real estate or trust and estate practitioners and scholars.  Sponsored by the Legal Education and Uniform Laws Group of the ABA Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

12:30pm Eastern/11:30 am Central

This month's topic: Current Issues in Common Interest Communities

Register at http://ambar.org/professorscorner

Our October program, “Current Issues in Common Interest Communities,” features three outstanding scholars and three timely topics in the field of common interest development.

Paula Franzese is the Peter W. Rodino Professor of Law at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, NJ.  Prof. Franzese will explore the uneasy intersection of takings law and shorefront redevelopment in the context of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s recent decision in Borough of Harvey Cedars v. Karan.  In this case, a New Jersey shorefront town used its takings powers to condemn part of a family's oceanfront property to build an enhanced 22-foot-high dune to protect against the sorts of calamities wrought by Superstorm Sandy. Although the dune provides protection against future storm damage, it partially blocks the home's beach and ocean views. A jury’s award of $375,000 for reduction in view and value was reversed by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which held that the jury must assess not only the diminution in value suffered by the affected property owner but also the benefit conferred. To the extent that oceanfront owners reap the benefits, at taxpayers’ expense, of the dunes’ protection, how should that benefit be quantified appropriately to accommodate the loss of owners’ investment-backed expectations? 

Shelby Green is an Associate Professor of Law at Pace Law School in White Plains, NY.  Prof. Green will discuss the appropriate role of alternative dispute resolution within a common interest community.  Disputes within CICs are inevitable, but their amicable and efficient resolution is not.  Prof. Green will discuss two California cases, Chapala Management Corporation v. Stanton, 186 Cal. App. 4th 1532 (2010) and Grossman v. Park Fort Washington Ass’n, 212 Cal. App. 4th 1128 (2012), and how the cases demonstrate that two formal mechanisms—(1) the deferential standard of review (the business judgment rule) over decisions by managing boards and (2) the potential award of attorneys’ fees to the prevailing party—fail in their aim to channel disputes away from courts.  Prof. Green will also discuss whether current reform proposals, such as statutory ombudsman programs and ADR requirements as a prerequisite to suit, can readily facilitate the need for more amicable and efficient dispute resolution within CICs.

Andrea Boyack is an Associate Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, KS.  Prof. Boyack will discuss the extent to which the law should enforce transfer restrictions in common interest declarations.  The law has traditionally enforced such transfer restrictions despite their impact on alienability, viewing such restrictions as appropriate means to address or control maintenance of property within the community and behavior of the community residents.  Prof. Boyack will argue that these concerns are better directly controlled through community use regulations and that courts should invalidate covenant restrictions that unjustifiably constrain the right to transfer, particularly when the community’s legitimate objectives could be accomplished through less intrusive means.

Register for this FREE webinar at http://ambar.org/professorscorner!  

Tanya Marsh