In recent years, the Civil Rights Act has been extended beyond claims involving unlawful law enforcement activity to protect against wrongful state action involving property rights. These types of land use lawsuits include a wide range of illegal action such as conduct by zoning boards causing damage to land developers, as well as misuse of the condemnation power by state or municipal authorities resulting in damage to private homeowners.
A person's home is his castle. . . or at least it should be. An example of a case involving this fundamental America right in which our law firm was recently involved concerns of a group of homeowners on the Connecticut shore line. In these communities, where people come for the summer, town boards enacted ordinances which took away the rights of hundreds of homeowners to use their properties whenever they wanted. As a result homeowners robbed of their property rights found themselves unable to enjoy their land when they wanted, unable to rent their houses to other people, and unable to find financing or buyers for their property, even though they paid taxes and were good citizens.
These homeowners who lost their rights due to the town's unconstitutional practices hired our firm to enforce their civil rights in federal court where we were successful in obtaining a judgment from the court forcing the town to stop interfering with their property rights and return full use of their property.
Spinella & Associates has successfully represented other similarly situated homeowners throughout the state who have been denied full use of their property.
The United States Constitution guarantees that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property by federal, state, or local governments without due process of law. Just as the town you live in cannot simply take your car or bulldoze your house without a legal reason to do so or without giving you a meaningful opportunity to defend your rights, the town cannot simply revoke your right to use your property without a good reason and a proper hearing. Indeed, our firm is presently representing an individual where a town bulldozed his home without notice or a hearing on the grounds that it was not properly maintained while the homeowner still resided there.
In other cases we have represented developers who have been damaged by arbitrary and unjustified rulings by zoning officials.
If the town you live in is trying to take what is yours, call our office today at 860 728-4900. We will meet with you at your convenience to review your case and discuss your options.
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