FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE (June 6, 2017 – Hagåtña) –  Vice Speaker Therese Terlaje (D-Yoña), Chairperson for the Committee on Culture and Justice, is convening an Informational Briefing with the Office of the Attorney General this Thursday in order to determine the status of land condemnation and inverse condemnation cases, to include property taken by the government for Route 4.  Vice Speaker Terlaje is requesting that the Attorney General provide information as to the government’s compliance with Guam laws, which require for the relocation or repayment to landowners for properties taken for public use without compensation.

“For decades, many Guam residents have traveled Route 4 and benefited from the roadway access through the south of the island, but several families had to sacrifice their properties or have had their land occupied, damaged, or devalued for the roadway and bridges to exist. While only a fraction of those families has been able to receive reimbursements through legislative measures, the rest have been forced to take the government to court, or risk forfeiting their lands without just compensation,” the Vice Speaker stated.

Of particular concern, is a law passed in 1994 that gave landowners four (4) years to take action for inverse condemnation, including the taking of property for Route 4, thus diminishing the opportunities for families to pursue what is owed to them.

Expanding on the objective of these mandates, Senator Terlaje says, “We need to reconcile this long-standing conflict between the exercise of local governmental powers for the public benefit and the private property rights of our residents.”

The Informational Briefing with the Department of the Attorney General will take place on Thursday, June 8, 2017, beginning at 2:00 PM in I Liheslaturan Guåhan’s Public Hearing Room (Guam Congress Building, Hagåtña).

For more information, please call the Office of Vice Speaker Therese M. Terlaje at (671) 472-3586.