University of Utah : S.J. Quinney College of Law

John Martinez

Professor of Law

John Martinez, Professor of Law, received his B.A. from Occidental College (1973) and his J.D. from Columbia Law School (1976). Prior to joining the Utah faculty in 1984, he practiced environmental litigation for several years as a California Deputy Attorney General, served as Legal Counsel to the California Health and Welfare Agency, and was Deputy Director of the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. Professor Martinez has also been a visiting professor at the University of Santa Clara School of Law; the University of California, Davis, School of Law; the UCLA School of Law; and Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. At the SJ Quinney College of Law, he served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1994 through 1998. He publishes and teaches in the areas of government takings, property, real estate, state and local government law, and public finance. He is now the sole author of a four-volume treatise on Local Government Law, and published a one-volume treatise on Government Takings in 2006. He is a former General Counsel of the Hispanic National Bar Association.

Professor Martinez teaches real estate finance, property, land use control, state and local government law, and a seminar on government takings.

Scholarship Highlights

Other Publications: United States Supreme Court Cases in State & Local Government Law, Urb. St. & Loc. L. Newsl. (Annual Reports, 1989 to Present).

Summaries of Utah Supreme Court decisions, Utah Intermountain Commercial Record, 2002 to Present.

Litigation:

Wintergreen Group, LC v. Utah Department of Transportation, 2007 UT 75, 171 P.3d 418 (landowner against whom direct condemnation action has been filed can bring counterclaim or independent action for inverse condemnation).

 

Zufelt v. Haste, 2006 UT App 326, 142 P.3d 594 (federal bankruptcy decision avoiding assignment of bankrupt''s interest in a corporation did not have collateral estoppel effect on the interest of another shareholder in the corporation).

 

Parkside Salt Lake Corp. v. Insure-Rite, Inc., 2001 UT App 347, 37 P.3d 1202 (eviction summons held invalid, all trial court orders for landlord reversed, appellate court decides landlord breached lease).

 

Books

Treatise (One Volume): Government Takings (Thomson-West Publishing, 2006).

Treatise (Four Volumes): Local Government Law (Thomson-West Publishing, 1987—Present, Annual Supplements and Chapter Revisions), formerly by Sands & Libonati.

Textbook: State & Local Government Law - A Transactional Approach (with Libonati)(Anderson Publishing Company, 2000).

Legal Writing

A Proposal for Establishing Specialized Federal and State "Takings Courts", 61 Maine L. Rev. 467 (2009).

Wrongful Convictions as Rightful Takings: Protecting "Liberty-Property", 59 Hastings L.J. 515 (2008)

Hurry Up and Wait: Negative Statutes of Limitation in the Government Tort Liability Setting, 19 St. John''s J. Legal Comment. 259 (2005).

Rational Legislating, 34 Stetson L. Rev. 547 (2005).

Getting Past The Name-Calling: A Framework for Analyzing Affirmative Action Plans, 16 Utah Bar J. 16 (May 2004).

A Prudential Theory for Providing a Forum for Federal Takings Claims, 36 Real Property Probate and Trust L.J. 445 (Fall 2001).

Works in Progress

  Getting Back the Public''s Money: The Anti-Favoritism Norm in American Property Law, ___ Buffalo Law Review ___ (forthcoming 2010).