Vera Coking

Vera Coking is a retired homeowner in Atlantic City, New Jersey whose home was the focus of a prominent eminent domain case involving Donald Trump.

In 1993, when Donald Trump sought to expand his property holdings around his Atlantic City casino and hotel (to build a parking lot designed for limousines), he bought several lots adjacent to his property. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503EFDA1F39F935A15754C0A96E958260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fE%2fEminent%20Domain " IN BRIEF; Follow-Ups: Judge Rejects Property Seizure"] , "The New York Times", July 26, 1998. Accessed December 5, 2007.] Coking, who had lived in her house at that time for about 35 years, refused to sell. This was not the first time Coking had been asked to sell her property for development. When Coking refused to sell to Trump, the city of Atlantic City condemned her house, using the power of eminent domain. Her designated compensation was to be $251,000, [cite news |author=Nelson, I. Rose |title=Court Condemns Casino Condemnations |url=http://www.bjrnet.com/member/gatl/index.cgi?read=8 |work=The Gambling and the Law |year=1998 |accessdate=2008-04-02] about one quarter of what it had been valued ten years earlier.

With the assistance of the Institute for Justice, Coking fought the local authorities, and eventually prevailed. [Herszenhorn, David M. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE6DB1E30F932A15754C0A96E958260 " Widowed Homeowner Foils Trump in Atlantic City"] , "The New York Times", July 21, 1998. Accessed December 5, 2007.] Superior Court Judge Richard Williams ruled, on a technicality—because there were "no limits" on what Trump could do with the property—that the plan to take Coking's property did not meet the test of law. But Williams' ruling did not refute the principle of using eminent domain to take private property from one individual and transferring it to another, a principal that would eventually be upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in "Kelo v. City of New London".

Trump was not the only one to pursue Coking's property. In 1983, publisher Bob Guccione had offered Coking $1,000,000 for her property, which she declined. [cite web |url=http://www.ij.org/private_property/atlantic_city/background.html |title=Public Power, Private Gain: The Abuse of Eminent Domain |accessdate=2008-04-02 |publisher=Institute for Justice]

Today, Coking still lives in her home, next to the Trump Plaza Hotel.

References