The real estate advocacy team of Lathrop & Gage offers a one-stop for all types of legal disputes that may arise from the purchase and sale of real estate. We represent developers, individual investors, owners and tenants. Although we are effective negotiators, we understand that litigation is sometimes unavoidable. We draw on the strengths of our other practice areas to provide expertise on the wide range of legal issues related to real estate. Unlike other real estate firms, we can meet both your transactional and litigation needs. We advise clients in sophisticated real estate litigation matters:

• Eminent Domain/Condemnation
• Foreclosure Sales
• Land Use and Zoning
• Real Estate Development
• Restrictive Easement
• Special Use Permit

Our representative experience in real estate advocacy includes the following matters:

• Represented Marillac before the City of Overland Park and in the District Court of Johnson County, Kansas, in matters surrounding the highly publicized relocation of the Marillac Center to a new location in the City of Overland Park. Marillac had filed an application for a new Special Use Permit for an indefinite period of time to operate a Psychiatric Hospital/Residential Treatment Center. The application was hotly contested on multiple levels.
• Prepared all documents needed to convert The Dakota Lofts, a 1950s industrial building, into residential lofts that had complex build-to-suit provisions. Prepared all easements among multiple parties to account for off-site parking needed to satisfy parking requirements as well as related no-build and encroachment easements for balconies that would hang over the property line.
• Prepared all documents needed to convert The Carlton Plaza, a 1950s era apartment complex, into residential lofts that included optional build-to-suit provisions. Also performed the replatting of the property to comply with subdivision regulations.
• Prepared all documents needed to convert The 5th and Campbell Condominiums, a turn-of-the-century apartment building. into three unit condominium. Also performed the replatting of the property.
• Represented a developer of an apartment condominium and "villas" development (separate free standing houses, but part of an overall association with no owner obligation to maintain exterior), in a controversy with various unit purchasers. Avoided litigation by negotiating an extensive settlement and collecting over a hundred signatures on an amendment to a homeowners' association declaration (functional equivalent in this case of a condo declaration) as part of the workout.
• Represented the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) in several lawsuits against adjoining landowners who claimed ownership interests in KCATA’s Country Club Right-of-Way properties. Complex questions of real estate deed construction, easement versus fee determinations, adverse possession and other real estate issues have been involved in these cases.
• Obtained a seven-figure judgment for our client following a federal court trial involving a claim for liquidated damages under a commercial lease. We proved the landlord had breached its obligations, causing a substantial delay in our client’s ability to open for business. The court further determined that the liquidated damages formula specified in the lease was reasonable, and calculated our client’s judgment by multiplying that formula by the number of days of delay.
• Represented a major million-dollar corporation in separate actions in Missouri and Kansas trial courts involving commercial real estate leases. In both actions, the client-lessee sought to terminate a lease prior to the lease’s expiration date. We contended that the lessor in each suit breached certain lease provisions which, in turn, released this client from its obligations under the lease. The suits also explored the mitigation responsibilities of real estate lessors.
• Defended against plaintiff’s Motion for Injunctive Relief demanding removal of a restaurant constructed in a parking lot in front of plaintiff’s drug store in Johnson County, Kansas. The court granted our client’s Motion for Summary Judgment, holding that our client received no actual or constructive notice of any alleged restrictive easement created in the drug store’s lease with separate defendant.
• Represented the condemnees in litigation involving the taking of a historic building in Kansas City, Missouri, through the state courts of Missouri, and, ultimately, the United States Supreme Court. The case involved several seminal issues on the law of eminent domain and resulted in a widely cited Missouri Supreme Court case.
• Represented the condemner in a condemnation action in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, concerning the taking of two parcels of land situated in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The trial revolved around the issue of our client’s power to condemn based on the condemnee’s breach of a development agreement.
• Represented a landowner in a Kansas condemnation appeal arising from construction of the Quivira Road overpass. We also handled a companion lawsuit in which the landowner alleged that it did not participate in pre-suit condemnation activities based on its belief that it had already reached an agreement with the city’s attorneys regarding compensation to be paid for the taking.
• Represented our client in a $5 million commercial foreclosure on mining property in Lenexa, Kansas. After we received a judgment and decree of foreclosure, and on the day before a hearing on our motion to appoint a receiver for the property, the debtor filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. The case involves extensive commercial law, real estate, bankruptcy and environmental issues. Our client, the buyer, sought specific performance, declaratory relief, and actual and punitive damages against the seller, the real estate broker and others in an action for breach of a commercial real estate contract. The case arose when another interested party prevented the closing of the sale by asserting a previously undisclosed right of first refusal. The court held that the right of first refusal had expired as a matter of law and our client ultimately was able to purchase the property for a price far below that contained in the original real estate contract.
• William A. Hartong et al. v. RTC as Receiver for Blue Valley Federal Savings and Loan Association and FDIC. This complex commercial litigation in federal court involved lender liability claims against the FDIC and RTC, as Receiver for Blue Valley, and claims by the RTC on a real estate development loan. We negotiated an extremely favorable settlement for the RTC and FDIC, resulting in payment to the RTC of more than $800,000.
• The Equitable Life Assurance Society v. Prairie Mining, Inc. et al.   Represented the Equitable in a $6.5 million commercial foreclosure on mining property in Lenexa, Kansas. After we received a judgment and decree of foreclosure, and on the day before a hearing on our motion to appoint a receiver for the property, the debtor filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. The case involved extensive commercial law, real estate, bankruptcy and environmental issues.