LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP Eminent Domain litigation team obtained a jury verdict in a Los Angeles Superior Court that awarded under six percent above the taking agency's expert valuation of the property, and less than the agency's final settlement offer prior to trial. The case, entitled San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments v. Sahagun, et al., LASC Case No. 1926CV22715, involved a full fee take by the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG) of commercial property that was needed to construct the agency's grade separation project in the City of Montebello. The project is part of SGVCOG's safety improvements and grade separations to multiple at-grade crossings involving Union Pacific Railroad tracks throughout the San Gabriel Valley. The project will reduce crossing collisions, queuing, and congestion as well as reduce vehicle emissions.
SGVCOG's team was led by Burke eminent domain law partners Alan A. Sozio and Chad W. Herrington. Messrs. Sozio and Herrington successfully eliminated the property and business owner's specious $3.5 million lost business goodwill claim on grounds that the owner failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate his damages. Prior to trial, the agency had made a final offer of $1,420,000 for the value of the property, while the property owner made a final demand of $3,000,000. After a five-day trial, the jury returned a verdict awarding the owner $1,372,000 in just compensation, which was approximately six percent above the agency's expert valuation of the property and less than the agency's final pretrial offer to the property owner.
Sozio noted, "We believe this favorable trial outcome reflected our team's use of significant discovery and pre-trial motions to successfully temper the claims put forward by the defendants, which were ultimately found to be unsupported."
Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP is a California limited liability law partnership with 177 member attorneys. Our mission is to provide clients with creative, results-oriented, and cost effective legal services. We view ourselves as problem solvers and legal strategists, not simply compliance monitors and reciters of the law. Burke has ten practice groups: Public Law; Labor & Employment Law; Eminent Domain & Inverse Condemnation; Construction Law; Litigation; Environmental, Land Use & Natural Resources; Real Estate & Business Law; Insurance Coverage & Litigation; Intellectual Property; and Education Law. Each practice group focuses on the professional development of member attorneys and on providing advisory services tailored to the needs of both public and private sector clients. With regional offices in the Inland Empire, Palm Desert, Los Angeles, Marin County, Oakland, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Ventura County, as well with the support of advanced telecommunications, Burke can easily be anywhere our California situated clients need us to be. For more information, please visit and
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