Robert Sapero likens his eminent domain battle against the city of Baltimore to the Alamo.
If so, the businessman on Thursday played the role of the Mexican army.
“I don?t want to overstate it, but there?s a satisfaction in justice,” Sapero said.
For the second time this year, Maryland?s highest court rebuked the city of Baltimore for seizing private property without good reason.
City law requires that “in order to utilize quick-take condemnation, the city demonstrate why, because of some exigency or emergency, it is in the public interest for the city to take immediate possession of a particular property,” Maryland Court of Appeals Judge Dale Cathell wrote. “Without such a showing, the city may not maintain a quick take condemnation action.”
Sapero, owner of the defunct Chesapeake Restaurant on Charles Street and a pair of row houses on East Lanvale Street, brought the most recent appeal before the state?s highest court, challenging the city?s Dec. 21, 2005, seizure of his land as part of its Charles North revitalization plan.
“Justice has prevailed as far as I?m concerned,” Sapero said of Thursday?s decision.
Sapero?s attorney, Alan Engel, said the ruling vindicated his client?s challenge.
“They have to play by the same rules as everyone else,” Engel said of the city. “This ruling undoes the government?s use of quick-take as leverage to try to force a sale on a property owner.”
Sapero argued that the city government had no specific development plan. He was in the process of selling his property for $2 million when the city seized his land, halting the sale, according to his attorney.
In February, George Valsamaki, owner of the nearby Magnet bar, won a landmark victory when the appeals court ruled that Baltimore must provide a specific reason in order to seize property.
