Allison Cole-Kelly v. Malia M. Cohen, in Her Official Capacity as State Controller of California, et al.

The State of California, pursuant to its unclaimed property laws, regularly seizes possession of owners’ unclaimed personal property, holds it in custody and trust for the owners, uses it for the state’s purposes to pay its obligations, without paying the owners of that unclaimed property any compensation for its use of the owners’ property pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure §§1540(c) and 1562. That is an unconstitutional taking without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause made applicable to the states pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment. The issues in this case are: 1: May a property owner whose property is taken and used by the state without compensation, sue the state directly for just compensation under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause where the state has not affirmatively provided the property owner with a cause of action and in fact, has affirmatively precluded any cause of action to recover compensation for its taking and use of the owner’s property? 2: Does Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity bar a property owner’s self-executing Fifth Amendment right to just compensation for the state’s taking of his/ her property?