Inverse Condemnation

Rosenberg Mendlin & Rosen, LLP represents property owners in obtaining "just compensation" after a landslide, mudslide, flood, water line leak, sewage spill or other event that has damaged private property, under the area of law known as lnverse Condemnation. This field has unique legal principles which are constitutionally-based. The firm's lawyers have litigated and tried these cases for four decades. We have developed and maintained relationships with experts, including geologists, geotechnical engineers, hydrologists, appraisers and structural engineers, whose expertise is necessary to prosecute such cases successfully.

Property rights are protected as a matter of constitutional law under both the United States Constitution and the California Constitution. Property may not be taken or damaged for a public purpose without just compensation. Under the law of inverse condemnation, a governmental entity whose project damages a homeowner's property will often be liable for the damages even if the government was not "negligent," and even if the damages were not foreseeable.

For example, a governmental entity might construct a road by cutting into a hillside. That road cut might destabilize the hillside, causing a landslide, sometimes decades later, that damages homes above the road. Or a road might collect and direct surface water into a hillside, destabilizing that hillside, causing a landslide which damages homes below the road. In such cases, the homeowners may be entitled to compensation even if the governmental entity was not "negligent" in building the road.