Topekans ask Supreme Court to intervene in business relocation dispute with City Hall

Two tenants who lost business leases to accommodate a city of Topeka drainage project urged the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday to interpret state law to require payment by the government of relocation expenses to displaced renters even when a landlord sold property without imposition of eminent domain.

Tenants Charles Nauheim and Hal Richardson filed a lawsuit after the city encouraged the landlord in 2013 to complete negotiations of the sale in a manner avoiding condemnation proceedings by the Topeka City Council. The deal was closed and the tenants moved out, but the city argued it wasn’t obligated to pay relocation benefits because eminent domain wasn’t used.

A judge in Shawnee County District Court threw out the case and sided with the city, but the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Richardson and Nauheim should be granted a trial on whether the city’s discussion of condemnation, a possibility raised in emails from the city attorney’s office to the landlord, was enough to trigger payment of benefits.