Publications & Articles
Public agencies throughout the State are permitted to deduct environmental clean-up costs from their determination of the just compensation offered to private property owners whose properties are being acquired through eminent domain. This is precisely what happened to Janet Block when the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Long Beach sought to condemn two other lots that sat atop an abandoned oil well for amounts representing a set-off in the amount of the estimated clean-up costs. Block tendered the defense of the eminent domain action to three liability insurers, all of whom rejected the tender outright. While Mrs. Block ultimately settled with the City, she sued her insurers for breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing and for breach of contract based on their failure to defend her in the condemnation suit. The Second District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in the insurer’s favor in Block v. Golden Eagle Insurance Company (2004) 121 Cal.App.4th 186.