Court rejects challenge to $18.6M award in Jersey City eminent domain case

Published: Saturday, June 25, 2011, 12:47 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

AN APPELLATE COURT has ruled that $18 million must be paid to the former owners of a 3.4-acre lot at the foot of Jersey Avenue. The property was seized by the city via eminent domain in 2004.

An appellate court last week affirmed a September 2008 jury decision that awarded $18.6 million to the former owners of a 3.4-acre site at the foot of Jersey Avenue that was seized by the city via eminent domain.

The property, with views of Liberty State Park and downtown Manhattan, was condemned by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency in 2004. It?s included in the Liberty Harbor North Redevelopment area, a waterfront community developed by Peter Mocco.

The former owners of the land -- Ronald Kerrigan, his wife, Lynn, and his sister Katherine -- are ?very happy? with the court?s decision, and hope to hear from the JCRA soon about when the judgment will be paid, said the Kerrigans? Florham Park attorney, William J. Ward.

Ward said the judgment, including interest, is now over $22 million. The Supreme Court, he added, will likely not tackle the case, so he expects the JCRA and Mocco to end the legal battle here.

?It?s in their interests, I think, to pay this,? Ward said.
When the JCRA condemned the property in 2004, it offered the Kerrigans $3.9 million. The Kerrigans? experts valued the property at $25.3 million, according to the 13-page appellate ruling.

City residents will not feel any financial pain from the judgment, as Mocco is on the hook for the whole thing, said JCRA Executive Director Bob Antonicello.

Antonicello said the JCRA has retooled its position regarding eminent domain in recent years, and the Kerrigan case is partially responsible. Since Mayor Jerramiah Healy took over leadership of the city, Antonicello said, the JCRA has been much more hesitant to seize properties via eminent domain.
The Kerrigan decision ?really changes the way you do business going forward, but we already changed business five years ago,? he said.

Mocco could not be reached for comment.

That will sting a bit.

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