Little Pink House Part 17

Not in Connecticut, Berliner explained. "The only thing you can do is file an objection to the amount of compensation being offered in the statement of compensation."

Bullock laughed sarcastically. Under Connecticut law, once a munic.i.p.ality decided to take a person's home, the homeowner could question the amount of compensation, but not the taking itself?

"It gets worse," Berliner said. "Once the statement of compensation is filed, t.i.tle automatically transfers to the condemning authority." She read directly from the statute: "Upon the recording of such certificate, t.i.tle to such property in fee simple shall vest in the munic.i.p.ality ... At any time after such certificate of taking has been recorded, the agency may ... take whatever action is proposed with regard to such property by the project area redevelopment plan."

The nature of Connecticut's law put property owners at a huge disadvantage. In New London, people were being told to get out, no questions allowed. Bullock insisted this had to be unconst.i.tutional. Under the due-process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Const.i.tution, a property owner had to be afforded an adequate opportunity to be heard before the government deprived an owner of real estate. People in New London were ent.i.tled to some sort of hearing before losing their homes, he felt.

Berliner read Bullock's mind. "There is only one way to challenge the legality or const.i.tutionality of the condemnation," she said.

"What's that?"

"You become the plaintiff and have to file your own lawsuit."

"Wait a minute," said Bullock. "We have to file our own lawsuit in response to this?"

Berliner removed her gla.s.ses and smiled. In Connecticut, the statement of compensation filed by a munic.i.p.ality was the equivalent of a lawsuit against a property owner. But there was no provision in the law to challenge or defend against the lawsuit. Susette and her neighbors had one option-they had to file a lawsuit challenging the taking.

Bullock had never encountered a similar situation. Normally he defended homeowners who had been sued by a condemning authority. In those instances, a defendant typically had thirty days to respond. But Susette and her neighbors wouldn't be responding to a suit; they'd be initiating one. He wondered what kind of filing deadline they'd face. Berliner wasn't sure either. Connecticut law didn't contemplate such suits, so it gave no guidance on timing.

"The sooner the better, I guess," Bullock said.

The next day, Bullock composed an e-mail to Susette and key members of the coalition: h.e.l.lo all: As promised I want to give you a status report. We have been conducting extensive research on Connecticut law ... and eminent domain. Also, we have been extremely busy on other cases and will continue to be throughout the next 710 days. In fact, I will be out for most of next week.But with all that being said, I am pleased to report that we are growing increasingly confident that there are several ways of challenging the takings of the remaining properties in Fort Trumbull and we may be in a position in a couple of weeks to announce that we can represent owners who wish to fight it. Unfortunately, it could be a matter of timing. If condemnations start next week, we simply cannot do it due to other case commitments.But hopefully, within the next weeks we will be able to make an announcement that we will defend Susette and the other "hold-outs" (we prefer to call them "freedom-fighters") who wish to fight once the condemnation papers are filed.Please, everyone, let's keep this low-key for now and not let it leak, especially to the media. We want to maintain the element of surprise!

Sarah Steffian had no doubt Bullock and the inst.i.tute would take Susette's case. She forwarded Bullock's e-mail to Fred Paxton with a note: "Impress upon Susette the great importance of not speaking to anyone outside of our group about her plans, the IJ, the lawsuit, or anything else relating to any of it! I know she considers you as someone who is individually sympathetic to her plight ... I believe that Scott Bullock called Susette yesterday before he sent the e-mail and that shortly thereafter the mailman knew all about it ... So, short of sitting on her, anything you can do to get her to keep appropriate silence is not only helpful, but downright necessary! Sarah."

Paxton gave Susette a call. She told him not to worry. "I'm not sayin' nothin' to no one," she said.

29.

A DEMANDING BEAST.

The NLDC had blown through millions of dollars in state money and had almost nothing to show for it. The state would not approve more funding without first seeing some investment by other stakeholders. If the NLDC didn't come up with some quick cash, it would have trouble paying the salaries of those responsible for carrying out the eminent-domain takings.

Claire organized a stakeholder campaign. She set a goal to raise $750,000 from private investors. She targeted businesses that would benefit financially from the NLDC's development plan. Sure enough, banks, construction contractors, law firms, and wealthy individuals with ties to NLDC board members pledged five- and six-figure donations.

Still short, Claire turned to Pfizer. It pledged $75,000. On October 30, Claire issued a press release: "We are extremely fortunate to have Pfizer as a partner in moving New London forward," she said. "Beyond their presence as a leading member of the New London business community, their substantial involvement in the Stakeholders Campaign is further evidence of their commitment to the future of New London."

With its capital campaign completed, the NLDC instructed its law firm to initiate eminent-domain takings against all remaining holdouts in Fort Trumbull.

Ultimately, the decision whether to take the case of the Fort Trumbull property owners fell to Chip Mellor, the forty-nine-year-old founder and president of the Inst.i.tute for Justice. The concept behind the Inst.i.tute for Justice was the notion of entrepreneurial lawyering at no charge to the clients. There were no contingency-fee cases either. All of the inst.i.tute's funding came from private donors. To Mellor, litigation was always about much more than winning a single case. In his world, cases had to be platforms for a cause that went beyond any one individual.

When he had formed the inst.i.tute, in 1991 and at age forty, he developed a simple formula for selecting cases: (1) sympathetic clients; (2) outrageous facts; and (3) evil villains. Based on the reports Bullock had been giving him about New London, Mellor concluded the situation there satisfied all three criteria. He had high hopes that his organization could help the residents of Fort Trumbull and that the fight could end up helping many others around the country. But Mellor agreed with Bullock that one more visit to Fort Trumbull was necessary to sort out which property owners were truly committed to the fight.

November 16, 2000 Eager for Bullock to arrive, Susette worked with Amy Hall-quist to arrange interviews for him with ten prospective plaintiffs. The meetings were scheduled thirty minutes apart. Susette put herself and Von Winkle first and second on the list.

Seated across from Susette at her kitchen table, Bullock began by a.s.suring her there would be no legal fees.

She laughed. "That's good, because I don't have any money."

Instead of money, Bullock explained, he expected some other things from Susette. "We're different types of lawyers," he told her. "We don't follow the typical way lawyers do things."

She asked him to explain.

He started with a simple example. When filing lawsuits, the inst.i.tute always wrote an introduction to each complaint, a sort of short story saying what the case was about. Lawyers, as a rule, didn't write complaints that way. Courts, after all, didn't require a story; they were about reviewing facts and the laws that govern them.

But the inst.i.tute wanted the press to read its lawsuits, too. If crafted properly, lawsuits could be the basis for changing public policy. If a lawsuit in New London led to better protections against eminent-domain abuse on a nationwide basis, the inst.i.tute would rather have that than money.

Susette nodded, only half grasping it.

Bullock offered another distinction between his firm and others. Usually when a case involves multiple plaintiffs, the group's lawyer simply lists them alphabetically on the complaint. This means that individuals whose last names began with the letters "A," "B," and "C" were more likely to be lead plaintiffs than those whose names began with "R," "S," and "T."

"We refuse to do that," Bullock explained. "We pick the person who we think will be the primary spokesperson for the case, the person who we think really represents what this fight is all about."

Bullock grinned at Susette and raised his eyebrows.

She didn't flinch.

In Bullock's a.s.sessment, Susette had the most dedication and determination among the holdouts. She had led the fight from day one. She had consistently turned down financial offers to sell. Her home had been the gathering place for opposition meetings, rallies, and vigils. She had the stuff to turn a legal dispute into a real national cause. Bullock asked her if she would agree to have her name listed first on the suit.

She said yes.

"You have to be willing to be the public face of this battle and work with the media and not be afraid to have your picture in the newspaper and in our publications," he said.

She explained she had no experience with the press. She felt uncomfortable talking to reporters.

Not to worry, Bullock told her. His firm employed highly skilled media professionals. They would teach Susette the rules of the game, such as how to speak to the media, how to behave in front of the camera, and other useful tips.

"The media can be a demanding beast," Bullock said.

Convincing Von Winkle would be a little more difficult but no less important. Von Winkle owned more property than anyone else in the neighborhood. Without him on board, Bullock figured, it would be too easy for the city to squeeze Susette and any other plaintiffs.

Knowing he needed to make a strong pitch, Bullock walked into Von Winkle's deli and told him he planned to file a lawsuit against the city and wage a high-profile campaign that would put a national spotlight on the injustices being carried out by the NLDC. All the inst.i.tute's resources would be behind the Fort Trumbull property owners. "Are you interested in being a plaintiff?" he asked.

Von Winkle paused. By claiming ownership of Von Winkle's properties, the NLDC also claimed it was ent.i.tled to all the rental proceeds generated by the tenants. "What happens if I lose my rental income during the litigation?" he asked. "If that happens I won't have any income."

"We will fight and do all we can to protect your interests to the greatest extent of our ability," Bullock a.s.sured him. "We won't let you be financially ruined during the course of the litigation."

Von Winkle had other concerns. If successful, Bullock's strategy would thrust the homeowners into the spotlight. "I'm not good at speaking to the media," Von Winkle said.

"Don't worry. We won't put you up front. Susette will be the lead plaintiff in the case. Inevitably, she will get more attention as a result."

"That's good, Bull."

Bullock smiled. No one had ever called him that before.

Von Winkle agreed to join the suit.

"Look, I want to be sure I'm clear about our expectation here," Bullock said. "We want people who are going to hang in there and fight this and not sell a couple of months into the battle."

"I won't let you down, Bull," he said with a grin. "I'll stick with you."

With Von Winkle on board, Bullock picked up another plaintiff, Von Winkle's friend Rich Beyer. Though he didn't reside in New London, Beyer owned a business and two buildings in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood. A highly skilled, thirty-one-year-old building contractor, Beyer had renovated one of the buildings and converted it into rental apartments. He had been in the process of renovating the second building when the NLDC padlocked the front door, confiscated his tools and building materials, and tried to force him out after he refused the agency's take-it-or-leave-it offer. The heavy-handed tactics motivated Beyer to stand and fight beside the neighborhood's residents as a matter of principle.

Bullock couldn't have scripted a more suitable plaintiff than Beyer, a self-employed, hardworking guy dedicated to supporting his young family and minding his own business. But his business had been threatened by the NLDC's quest for his property.

Before leaving New London, Bullock lined up the rest of the plaintiffs.

Matt and Sue Dery agreed to join the suit. As the t.i.tleholder to the family home, Dery's elderly mother, Wilhelmina, would appear on the complaint. She had never lived elsewhere, and she had no interest in moving. Matt agreed to be her advocate in the fight.

Another elderly couple, Pasquale and Margherita Cristofaro, also pledged to sign on to the suit. They had moved to the neighborhood decades earlier-after losing their previous home to the city's eminent domain. Their son Michael agreed to speak on behalf of his parents in the lawsuit.

James and Laura Guretsky, a younger couple living on Susette's block, also signed on.

So did Byron Athenian, a mechanic with a wheelchair-bound granddaughter, who lived a block from Susette. He and his mother had a modest home near the Italian Dramatic Club.

Between them, the group owned fifteen of the twenty-two Fort Trumbull properties targeted by the NLDC. They were largely a lunch-pail group-a carpenter, an auto mechanic, a nurse, a self-employed businessman, and some senior citizens hoping to spend their final days in the homes they had occupied for decades. Most of them had dirt under their nails at the end of the workday.

Convinced the inst.i.tute had to take the case, Bullock returned to Washington and put together a final proposal to submit to his firm's board of directors for approval.

30.

WOLVES AT THE DOOR.

November 22, 2000 As a cold wind whipped off the water, Susette trudged up the front steps to her house. The sun had already set, though it was barely past 5 p.m. It had been a long day at the hospital. With aching feet and a sore back, she planned to spend the evening prepping food for the following day's Thanksgiving dinner.

Reaching for the doork.n.o.b, she spotted a paper taped to her door. She yanked it down and started reading. "The CITY OF NEW LONDON, acting by the NEW LONDON DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (the 'Condemner'), has filed with the Clerk of the Superior Court for the Judicial District of New London at New London a Statement of Compensation relative to the taking of the property described in that statement."

Time had run out. Her property had been condemned. The notice made it clear that she no longer owned her property; the NLDC did. "Upon receipt of such return of notice," she read, "the Clerk of the Superior Court shall issue a Certificate of Taking. Upon the recording of the Certificate of Taking, t.i.tle to the premises described therein shall vest in the munic.i.p.ality."

For the first time, she felt the city had invaded her home. Sometime earlier that day, she realized, a stranger had come on her property and affixed a notice to her door informing her that her home was no longer hers.

She rushed inside and called Von Winkle. He had also received condemnation papers. Others had, too. The elderly were scared. Von Winkle was ready to fight. So was Susette.

"What should we do?" she asked.

"Call up Bull," Von Winkle said.

She hung up and called Bullock's office. He was working late. Breathless with anxiety, she described the condemnation notice.

"Tell me what it says," Bullock said.

While she read, Bullock faced the oversized quote above his desk: "'For the coming of that day shall I fight, I and ... my chosen friends. For the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his life. For his honor.'-Ayn Rand."

Susette finished reading. "Scott," she said, "the wolves are at our door."

He promised to get right back to her. Furious, he hung up and marched down the hall to Dana Berliner's office.

"Now what?" she said, observing his fury.

"I am so p.i.s.sed right now," he said and launched into a tirade about the condemnation notices. "To do this the day before Thanksgiving is so outrageous."

Berliner agreed.

"You know," he said, "everyone in the nation is going to recognize how outrageous this is."

"It will only increase the sympathy that most people will have for the property owners," Berliner said.

"The NLDC doesn't even have the decency to treat them with respect."

"Obviously not," she said.

"This has to stop! It has to stop!" he said. "I want to spread the word to as many people as possible about how wrong this is. This is a perfect example of the human toll of eminent-domain abuse."

Bullock and Berliner spent most of Thanksgiving weekend working. Both single, both determined, and both workaholics, they formulated a game plan for getting the condemnation actions dismissed and saving the homes. They listed the immediate tasks: * Draft the legal complaint.* Develop a background paper on the case, discussing the case history and the plaintiffs' background.* Generate a media advisory.* Produce a news release for distribution on the day the lawsuit would be filed.* Plan an event in New London to accompany the filing.

All of it added up to filing a precedent-setting lawsuit against the City of New London and the NLDC. They had a lot to do and very little time. They focused first on the complaint.

"This could possibly have a number of causes of action," Bullock said.

They started with the obvious. Under the Fifth Amendment, the government must have a public use or purpose when taking private property under eminent domain. Susette and her neighbors were convinced their properties were being taken to accommodate Pfizer or some other private party. Bullock and Berliner agreed.

"Plaintiffs' property is slated for redevelopment not for public use, but rather as a health club, office s.p.a.ce, and yet unnamed and unspecified development projects," Bullock typed under the heading "FIRST COUNT" in the complaint. "Plaintiffs challenge this abuse of eminent domain authority as a violation of the Connecticut and United States Const.i.tutions."

They decided to point the finger at Pfizer in the complaint. "The development was to enhance the new Pfizer facility that was being built next to the Fort Trumbull neighborhood," Bullock added. "Under the Connecticut and United States Const.i.tution, private property may only be taken through eminent domain for 'public use.'"

Bullock wanted to include another claim: equal protection. The right to own, use, and possess property is protected under the U.S. Const.i.tution. In addition to requiring a legitimate or compelling reason for depriving someone of property rights, the equal-protection clause protected against discriminatory treatment. The city had deprived Susette and her neighbors of their property, while allowing the Italian Dramatic Club to keep its property. The city, in Bullock's eyes, had treated similarly situated people differently. Under some circ.u.mstances, unequal treatment was actually permissible, but the government had to show a rational basis for discriminatory treatment.

"By permitting one property owner in the plan (the Italian Dramatic Club) to retain t.i.tle and possession," Bullock typed, "while denying the ability of Plaintiffs to retain t.i.tle and possession of their property, Defendants treat similarly situated people differently."

Berliner pointed out that the court took equal-protection claims more seriously when race or ethnicity was the basis for discrimination. The Fort Trumbull homeowners had not faced discrimination based on skin color or ethnicity; they simply lacked political connections to the NLDC's decision makers.

Bullock insisted the claim was still worth raising. "It points out how absurd the NLDC's decision rationale was," he said. "This is a blatant example of them doing favors for those in power and neglecting those without political clout or influence."

Berliner agreed.

Bullock wasn't through. He insisted on a third count against the city based on the fact that taking homes wasn't necessary for the NLDC to complete its munic.i.p.al-development plan. The city had identified Susette's block as Parcel 4-A. Besides Susette's home, all of Von Winkle's properties and the Derys' properties were within Parcel 4-A. Unlike most of the other parcels within the ninety-acre development area, Parcel 4-A had not been designated for any specific construction. As a result, Bullock reasoned, it wasn't even necessary for the NLDC to take it.