Can'thavenuthingood
Member
There is no place you can be safe from Immient Domain. I remember as a kid seeing oldtimers in the news with guns in hand holding back bulldozers. Now that would get you SWAT'ted. Looking at the pictures, its obvious the tree has to go too. Where are the environmentalists on all this property seizure? The house was broke into and it was called a miscommunication. You pay and they get away. Your tax dollars at work.
Vick
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http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060315/NEWS01/603150388
Widow to be forced from home
Court sides with city on street upgrades
BY GREGORY KORTE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The city of Cincinnati has the right to take the home of an 80-year-old Clifton resident to move Dixmyth Avenue, north of Good Samaritan Hospital, a magistrate ruled Tuesday.
That means Emma Dimasi, the widow who's lived at Dixmyth and Clifton avenues since 1959, could be forced from her home as soon as Saturday.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Magistrate Richard A. Bernat ruled in an eight-page decision that the city "did not commit fraud, act in bad faith, or abuse its discretion" in using eminent domain to take properties on Dixmyth Avenue.
Dimasi's lawyer and son, Vincent A. Dimasi, said he would file an objection to the decision with Common Pleas Judge Melba B. Marsh, who can overrule Bernat's ruling.
He said his mother has no immediate plans to pack her bags - but knows the case isn't going her way.
"She tends to worry a lot, but I'm trying to get her used to this as much as I can," he said.
A year ago, the city's taking of Mrs. Dimasi's house might have passed without much notice.
But the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a landmark eminent domain case last year - and a similar Norwood case pending in the Ohio Supreme Court - has made the government's power to take property a hot legal topic.
Vincent Dimasi, who also owns rental property being taken by the city, argued that the Dixmyth project wasn't much different from the Norwood shopping center that led to the relocation of 70 property owners.
The city really wants his mother's property to facilitate the $122 million expansion of Good Samaritan Hospital, Dimasi said, and that makes the taking illegal under a year-long moratorium on eminent domain for private development. Gov. Bob Taft signed the ban into law last year as a reaction to a U.S. Supreme Court decision, while state lawmakers study the issue.
But the magistrate failed to get that far, relegating the significance of the moratorium to a footnote in his decision.
Even though the road project will benefit Good Samaritan - which can buy any unused land back from the city for $1 - the magistrate noted that "all roadway projects involve the transfer of at least some real property between public and private entities."
Under state law, a city can take possession of a property taken by eminent domain 60 days after serving the owner with papers. Those 60 days are up Saturday.
The $4 million road project is under construction, and city lawyers said they're not sure whether they can give much leeway on the Saturday deadline but promised to give the Dimasis as much notice as possible.
"We will be as sensitive to Mrs. Dimasi's needs as much as possible - as we have been already," Geri Hernandez Geiler, an assistant city solicitor, said.
Dimasi has asked for a restraining order to block city contractors from coming onto the properties, saying the city has used "heavy-handed intimidation" to try to force him and his mother out.
Two weeks ago, Dimasi said the city sent salvage crews who literally broke into his house - cutting through a window to reach a deadbolt lock inside - in order to remove a stained glass window.
Three weeks before that, the city placed an 8-foot sign reading "Dixmyth Relocation Project" in Mrs. Dimasi's front yard.
City lawyers admit both incidents happened but blamed them on a lack of communication.
E-mail [email protected]
Vick
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http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060315/NEWS01/603150388
Widow to be forced from home
Court sides with city on street upgrades
BY GREGORY KORTE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The city of Cincinnati has the right to take the home of an 80-year-old Clifton resident to move Dixmyth Avenue, north of Good Samaritan Hospital, a magistrate ruled Tuesday.
That means Emma Dimasi, the widow who's lived at Dixmyth and Clifton avenues since 1959, could be forced from her home as soon as Saturday.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Magistrate Richard A. Bernat ruled in an eight-page decision that the city "did not commit fraud, act in bad faith, or abuse its discretion" in using eminent domain to take properties on Dixmyth Avenue.
Dimasi's lawyer and son, Vincent A. Dimasi, said he would file an objection to the decision with Common Pleas Judge Melba B. Marsh, who can overrule Bernat's ruling.
He said his mother has no immediate plans to pack her bags - but knows the case isn't going her way.
"She tends to worry a lot, but I'm trying to get her used to this as much as I can," he said.
A year ago, the city's taking of Mrs. Dimasi's house might have passed without much notice.
But the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a landmark eminent domain case last year - and a similar Norwood case pending in the Ohio Supreme Court - has made the government's power to take property a hot legal topic.
Vincent Dimasi, who also owns rental property being taken by the city, argued that the Dixmyth project wasn't much different from the Norwood shopping center that led to the relocation of 70 property owners.
The city really wants his mother's property to facilitate the $122 million expansion of Good Samaritan Hospital, Dimasi said, and that makes the taking illegal under a year-long moratorium on eminent domain for private development. Gov. Bob Taft signed the ban into law last year as a reaction to a U.S. Supreme Court decision, while state lawmakers study the issue.
But the magistrate failed to get that far, relegating the significance of the moratorium to a footnote in his decision.
Even though the road project will benefit Good Samaritan - which can buy any unused land back from the city for $1 - the magistrate noted that "all roadway projects involve the transfer of at least some real property between public and private entities."
Under state law, a city can take possession of a property taken by eminent domain 60 days after serving the owner with papers. Those 60 days are up Saturday.
The $4 million road project is under construction, and city lawyers said they're not sure whether they can give much leeway on the Saturday deadline but promised to give the Dimasis as much notice as possible.
"We will be as sensitive to Mrs. Dimasi's needs as much as possible - as we have been already," Geri Hernandez Geiler, an assistant city solicitor, said.
Dimasi has asked for a restraining order to block city contractors from coming onto the properties, saying the city has used "heavy-handed intimidation" to try to force him and his mother out.
Two weeks ago, Dimasi said the city sent salvage crews who literally broke into his house - cutting through a window to reach a deadbolt lock inside - in order to remove a stained glass window.
Three weeks before that, the city placed an 8-foot sign reading "Dixmyth Relocation Project" in Mrs. Dimasi's front yard.
City lawyers admit both incidents happened but blamed them on a lack of communication.
E-mail [email protected]
