AVALON — On Tue., June 22, the state Supreme Court issued its opinion in the matter of Klumpp v. Borough of Avalon.
According to a release from Avalon, the Court essentially agreed with all of the legal arguments the borough put forward. The property was taken by Avalon in 1962, in order to construct a dune for shore protection in the wake of the worst natural disaster ever to hit the New Jersey coast.
The time for the former property owner to sue for compensation expired in approximately 1971. In fact, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the ruling in Raab v. Borough of Avalon, which precluded any compensation for similar former owners because they were out of time to seek compensation.
The Court created an equitable remedy in the Klumpp case that does not exist in law and gave the Klumpp plaintiffs the right to sue for payment of the 1965 value of the property. What that value was remains to be determined. The parcel was washed out to sea in 1962 and prior to that similar parcels were valued at about $2,000.
While the Court may feel, based on the limited record that could be constructed from the 1960’s, that Avalon did not fulfill some obligation, the Borough’s legal arguments were affirmed by the Court. The officials of the Borough of Avalon fulfilled their obligation to the public at large to ensure the preservation of the environmentally sensitive dune area which is also a critical shore protection feature. Avalon also fulfilled its obligation to the taxpayers at large to resist the demands of the Plaintiffs for permission to build in the dunes or be paid current value of the property.
“This is a tremendous decision for preservation of the dunes and our shore protection system,” said Avalon attorney Michael Donohue, in a release. “We will determine the 1965 value of the property and the limited compensation issue through future litigation. For now, there is no threat to our dune system and no significant financial burden on the taxpayers. Those were our goals from the start.”
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
