Public land swap deals in which the government takes property from one private owner to trade land with a different private owner violates property ownership rights, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday.
Even though New Jersey aligns with a broad federal understanding of eminent domain powers, the condemnation of land without applying that specific land for a public use violates the federal and state constitutions, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote for the unanimous court.
“Why didn’t the town condemn the developer’s land outright or exchange land the town already owned?” Rabner wrote. IIf “it were permissible for a town to condemn property for use in a land swap that might
serve a public purpose elsewhere, what if any limits would apply?”
Richard P. DeAngelis Jr., a partner at Connell Foley and attorney for the property owner Getzel Bee, LLC,
said in an email that the ruling “provides another important protection for all property owners against
eminent domain abuse.”
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