SUCCESSES

Helm & Wagner has successfully represented both property owners and governmental bodies in eminent domain cases primarily in the various counties within the State of Illinois for many years. Recently, it has expanded its practice to the States of Mississippi and Arkansas. The following summarizes some of the eminent domain cases handled by Helm & Wagner. Included among the cases involving representation of property owners against governmental bodies is the Brodie jury trial in DuPage County which resulted in an increase from $13 million to $31 million, which is reported as the largest eminent domain verdict in the State of Illinois. On the government side, Helm & Wagner has represented the DuPage County Forest Preserve District on most of its major acquisitions, including the acquisition of the Danada Forest Preserve in Wheaton; the Hidden Lake acquisition in Downers Grove; the Springbrook acquisition in Naperville; the Brookwood Country Club in Wooddale; the Elmhurst Country Club in Elmhurst; and the Kingery West acquisitions in eastern DuPage County.

The Hazel Brodie Trust and its Trust attorneys at the Chicago Law Firm of Sidley Austin LLP retained Helm & Wagner to serve as condemnation counsel on a partial acquisition involving the taking of a 55-acre tract out of a whole parcel of approximately 150 acres located in Aurora, Illinois. Helm & Wagner tried the case before a DuPage County jury and the case was finally concluded on November 18, 2010.* The jury returned a verdict of $31,003,250, which represented an $18 million increase above the School District's offer and the appraisal evidence. This $31,003,250 verdict is reported to be the largest jury verdict in an Illinois eminent domain case.

*The property was owned 50 percent by the Hazel S. Brodie Trust and its trust counsel at Sidley Austin LLP and 50 percent by the Helen Brach Estate. Helm & Wagner served as trial counsel for the Brodie Trust, and Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP served as trial counsel for the Helen Brach Estate. Together, the two firms put together a joint defense on behalf of their cooperating clients.

Helm & Wagner represented the Brown Family Trust in an eminent domain case involving an unimproved 80-acre property located in Bartlett, Illinois. The Forest Preserve District offered to purchase the property for $1,000,000. After the jury was impaneled, the Forest Preserve District agreed to settle the case on terms that resulted in the owner receiving a value of $3,350,000.

This case involved a partial acquisition of land along the frontages of Naperville Road and Butterfield Road in Wheaton. Helm & Wagner represented the shopping center owners, Prudential Insurance Company of America and Danada Square West, LLC, as well as major tenants Jewel Food Stores, Inc. and ERJ Dining IV, LLC (Chili's). IDOT offered $495,000 for the acquisition. The case settled on the eve of trial at $1,700,000, representing an increase in excess of $1,200,000.

Helm & Wagner represented Cora Ekins and her daughter, Nancy Ekins, in an eminent domain case involving a residential 13.69-acre property located on Bluff Road in Lemont, Illinois which was immediately west of the Argonne National Laboratory in the Lemont area. The property was unique in that it had 7 artesian wells that served a former trout farm on the Ekins' residential property. The Forest Preserve District offered $400,000, which the Ekins family rejected. Just prior to the trial of the case, the Forest Preserve District and the Ekins family reached a settlement at $1,600,000. The case was concluded in October 2004.