Is homeowner entitled to damages from city for permit denial?
By Robert J. Bruss
Mark Abrams is an amateur radio enthusiast. In 1989, he obtained a city permit to install a tall radio antenna at his home.
Nine years later, he sought permission to install a second radio antenna. After two public hearings, the city denied his permit application. His appeal to the city council was rejected.
In 2000, Abrams sued the city in U.S. District Court under the federal Telecommunications Act for a permit and for monetary damages. Sixteen months later, the federal court ruled the city's denial of Abrams' antenna permit was not supported by substantial evidence because the city could not deny the application for "aesthetic concerns."
The city's denial was "an act of spite by the community," the court emphasized as it ordered the city to grant the antenna permit. However, Abrams is not entitled to monetary damages, the U.S. District Court ruled.
Abrams then appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court affirmed the court order granting the permit to construct the radio antenna, but also ordered the city to pay Abrams monetary damages.
The city appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted a writ of certiorari.
If you were a U.S. Supreme court justice, would you grant Mark Abrams monetary damages for the city's denial of his application to construct an amateur radio tower at his home?
The U.S. Supreme Court justices said no!
The federal Telecommunications Act is the exclusive remedy for disputes involving wireless communications, the justices explained. Local jurisdictions cannot deny permits based on unreasonable local aesthetic considerations, they continued.
Abrams is entitled to construct his antenna at his residence, as approved by the U.S. District Court, they noted. But when Congress enacted the federal Telecommunications Act, there was no provision for monetary damages if a local government agency denies a permit and the applicant must resort to federal court action, the justices emphasized.
Therefore, Abrams is entitled to erect his communications antenna but he is not entitled to monetary damages from the city for his expense and delay, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled.
Based on the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in City of Rancho Palos Verdes v. Abrams, 125 S.Ct. 1453.
Man refuses 24 'free' tickets from AA – taxes would be $800 per flight
A man who won a recent American Airlines contest says the grand prize was more like a booby prize.
New York resident Jack McCall won the top prize — 12 restricted round-trip tickets for two from the
USA to anywhere in the world — as part of an AA contest for its "We Know Why You Fly" marketing
campaign. But, of course, the contest fine print states that the winner must pay federal and state
income taxes on the "approximate retail value" of the prize. That, according to American's estimation,
could come out to as much as $19,000, based on federal and New York state taxes. Why so much?
American valued the 12 pairs of round-trip tickets at $52,800 — or $2,200 per ticket. Of course, with
the estimated $19,000 tax bill, McCall would essentially be paying about $800 for each of his "free"
tickets. "I don't know where they got that $2,200 from," McCall tells The Wall Street Journal "I've
never spent more than $1,000 for a plane ticket in my life." McCall says he's refusing the prize,
adding that he could get a better deal by buying the tickets as usual. For its part, AA says that it had
to settle on the $52,800 value because the IRS requires to estimate the prizes at their "maximum
potential value."
275 laptops, peach-colored bra among items left at LAX
"What do 275 laptop computers, 662 sets of keys and 206 cell phones have in common with a set of
dentures, a peach-colored bra and a boxed 'Walking and Dancing Hula Doll'?" That's the question
posed in the opening paragraph of a Los Angeles Times story describing some of the more than 12,000
items left at LAX security checkpoints during the first half of the year. And those are just "forgotten" items,
not contraband items confiscated by airport security. "At LAX, you'll see just about everything," says
Doug Rae, assistant federal security director for screening at the airport.
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