Judge tells city: No stay on jury trials

Long Branch homeowners are continuing their legal battles in court this week seeking just compensation for their oceanfront homes, despite a failed attempt by the city to postpone the trials.

Monmouth County Assignment Judge Lawrence M. Lawson rejected two motions filed by the city to stay two eminent domain jury trials that involve properties in what has become known as the MTOTSA neighborhood.

Long Branch filed the motions last month, seeking an indefinite stay of the condemnation trials of Frances DeLuca, who owned a home on Ocean Terrace, and the Angelides family, which owned several homes in the neighborhood.

DeLuca's case was set to start Monday and the Angelides trial is scheduled to start Dec. 8.

"The DeLuca and Angelides properties are now owned by the city of Long Branch and its developer by the virtue of the filing of the declarations of taking and the deposit of the estimated compensation," said attorney William J. Ward last week, who is representing DeLuca in the case.

"The only remaining issue … is the jury trial, which will establish the just compensation. We are seeking $1.2 million for Mrs. DeLuca.

"The city's appraised amount for her home was $657,000," he said, adding, "The commissioners awarded $750,000. The jury trial … will probably be decided by the end of [this] week."

A group of MTOTSA homeowners are involved in a legal challenge against the city's right to use eminent domain to acquire the homes in the three-street neighborhood.

The MTOTSA group has filed briefs with the state Supreme Court seeking that the high court review an August decision of the Appellate Division, which declared the City of Long Branch's redevelopment project illegal.

DeLuca opted to not join the MTOTSA challenge and is currently seeking what her attorney says is rightfully hers. She has since built a new home on Ocean Avenue, outside of any redevelopment zones in the city. The city filed a motion last month to stay the DeLuca and the Angelides' eminent domain trials, arguing that the trial should be postponed pending the outcome of the current MTOTSA challenge.

"The city was seeking the stay because of the pending case," Ward said. "It won't impact this, though. That is whether there is blight to take the properties. In our case, we are no longer contesting the taking.

"We argued that there is no connection between the pending cases in the MTOTSA case and the Deluca and Angelides cases," he said, adding, "Mrs. DeLuca is not in the MTOTSA group and neither are the Angelides. All we want is our trial date and the determination of the true value of their properties."

Paul V. Fernicola, the attorney representing the city in the eminent domain cases, said that at this time the city is prepared to continue with the trials.

"We had argued that the Supreme Court has been petitioned in regard to the properties in MTOTSA and [the DeLuca and the Angelides] properties are part of MTOTSA, so a stay should be granted until the outcome of the Supreme Court," Fernicola said.

"We will now try these cases on the dates scheduled for the true values," he said. "The commissioners set the value at $750,000. We had offered to settle the case for $775,000."

DeLuca had initially objected alongside her neighbors to the right to take her home, but decided not to go forward with an appeal after Lawson affirmed the city's right to take the properties in the MTOTSA neighborhood in a June 2006 opinion.

That opinion was appealed by a group of MTOTSA property owners and was reversed and remanded by the Appellate Division in August.

In court on Oct. 24, Lawson ruled in favor of DeLuca and Angelides, noting that the taking cannot be abandoned without the consent of the respective property owners once title has passed to the condemning authority, according to Ward.

"If the Supreme Court agrees with [MTOTSA] and they take the case and dismiss the takings, the developer has some 15 properties they own in the neighborhood, which they could either build on or sell," Ward said. "Mrs. DeLuca, I don't think, wants her home back, because she has already built a new one."