Real Estate & Property Law

Possibility of Property Being Returned

By Alan Ackerman

sacbee.com

Some Swanston family members say they've heard there may be something in that 1950 deed or in old court documents giving the family first rights to the land.

Longtime Sacramentans have called The Bee, saying they, too, remember reading or hearing the story decades ago.

If true, it would dramatically alter the land-swap deal, which hinges on the state selling the Cal Expo site to a group backed by the National Basketball Association and international financiers.

Some Swanston family members dismiss the idea as wishful thinking. But other Swanstons say it's time to dig out the facts behind the family lore.

"We are having counsel look into the matter," Charles Swanston, an attorney, told The Bee last week. "Until the situation has been fully assessed, however, we would prefer to refrain from comment."

There are two questions at heart: Do 1950 sale documents place restrictions on what the state can do with the land? And, even though the Swanstons lost a 1970 lawsuit involving the sale of adjacent land, did the court leave open the possibility of a family claim to the Cal Expo site?

    Apparently, a key piece of property in Sacramento may have a provision allowing the original grantors to obtain recompense of the properties placed in a non-public use.  The construction of most statutes limits the right of the grantors (sellers) to obtain the value of the property years later. Many states have specific limitations on restraints on the alienation of property, and courts go out of their way to limit the errors even though they contractually may have the right to the value of the property years out.  
    This is not always the situation; accordingly, one must look at what the deed states along with the State statutes. 
 

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on April 28, 2010 (boomark / email).