California's highest court has rejected a key legal argument in a decade-long effort by a Southern California town to take control of its local water system. California Supreme Court ruled 7-0, August 24, against the Town of Apple Valley, finding that judges do not have to automatically defer to local governments seeking to take private utilities through eminent domain. Writing for the unanimous court, Associate Justice Leondra Kruger rejected Apple Valley's argument that its declaration of public necessity should receive only limited judicial review. "The town of Apple Valley, which seeks to take over a privately owned water utility, argues that its decision to take the utility is subject to the usual standard governing judicial review of a resolution of necessity — meaning, in effect, that the court can disallow the taking only if it concludes that the town has committed a gross abuse of discretion," Kruger wrote in the court's opinion. "The Court of Appeal accepted this argument. We do not."
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