New Jersey Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Another Redevelopment Case Involving Tenants’ Rights

The New Jersey Supreme Court recently granted a petition for certification in Town of Kearny v. Discount City of Old Bridge, Inc., et al., a redevelopment taking involving tenants rights where the designated “redeveloper” was also the tenant’s landlord, which was decided by the Appellate Division on October 23, 2009.  The Appellate Division held that pre-condemnation negotiations had satisfied the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law (“LRHL”) and the Eminent Domain Act of 1971, even though the tenant was not afforded the right to participate in such negotiations and did not receive notice of the town’s redevelopment proceedings.  The appeals court, however, remanded the matter in order to determine whether the landlord/redeveloper’s proposed project was consistent with the redevelopment plan, and also whether the leases’ condemnation clause precludes the tenants’ right to just compensation where the landlord/redeveloper’s property interest was not being condemned.

 The legal community will be watching to see what role, if any, that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Iron Mountain Information Management Inc. v. The City of Newark, __ N.J. __ (2010), may play during oral arguments and in the Court’s final decision.  The Iron Mountain decision, which focused on a tenant’s right to notice of a blight designation, held that only the owners of record and those whose names are listed on the tax assessor’s records as permitted under the LRHL are entitled to notice.

 Read more about the Appellate Division’s decision on our New Jersey Condemnation Law Blog by clicking here, and about the Iron Mountain decision by clicking here.   

The full text of the Appellate Division’s opinion in the Kearny case can be found here.   

The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Cory K. Kestner, Esq., of McKirdy & Riskin, PA, in the preparation of this article.