Justice finally for landowner?

The state Supreme Court has the opportunity to right one of the many injustices stemming from the city's dubious use of eminent domain during the 1990s.

Under the guise of redevelopment, Las Vegas officials more than a decade ago embarked upon an aggressive campaign to seize land downtown in order to turn the property over to more favored private owners.

The most high-profile case -- involving land that belonged to the Pappas family which was taken so downtown casino owners could build a parking garage -- resulted in years of litigation and an ultimate seven-figure settlement for the original property owners.

But there were several other disputes involving the use of eminent domain during that period -- one of which, involving Paul Moldon, made its way to the Nevada Supreme Court on Monday.

The matter dates back to 1995, when the Las Vegas redevelopment agency confiscated Mr. Moldon's half-acre lot so the Stratosphere could expand. Mr. Moldon challenged the seizure, so the city put the compensation it planned to offer him for his land -- $725,000 -- into an account while the matter was litigated.

Years later, in 2004, a jury found that the land was actually worth $1.5 million, meaning the city had obviously low-balled Mr. Moldon.

The issue before the justices this week was the status on the interest of the city's original $725,000 deposit. Mr. Moldon has never received a dime of the $200,000 that accrued over the past decade. Instead, Clark County reaped the windfall -- interest on all court trust accounts was simply transferred to the county general fund.

A state law -- since changed -- sanctioned that practice. But Mr. Moldon's attorney argued before the high court on Monday that the old law should not apply to accounts generated when the government used eminent domain to transfer property from one private owner to another.

"The county did not have beneficial ownership," said lawyer Chuck Gardner, pointing out that the during the entire dispute Mr. Moldon had not actually relinquished control of the property. "This is the taking of property without just compensation."

Mr. Moldon, who now lives in Washington state, left the Supreme Court building in Carson City on Monday feeling a touch of optimism from the tone of the hearing. "I think they got it," he said of the justices. "The city stole my property to give to the Stratosphere and then the county stole my interest."

The use of eminent domain in downtown Las Vegas during the 1990s should be an embarrassment to the high-ranking bureaucrats and elected officials who ran the city during that time. Let's hope in the Moldon case that the state Supreme Court pens a happy ending for at least one of those landowners who found himself caught up in the fiasco.