Little Pink House_ A True Story of Defiance and Courage - Jeff Benedict [132]
Instantly, the crushing shock hit them. It was immediately clear that part of the trial court decision had been affirmed and part of it had been reversed; the court had affirmed Judge Corradino’s decision to let the city’s eminent-domain takings against Beyer, Athenian, and the Cristofaros stand. And it had reversed Corradino’s decision to let Kelo, Von Winkle, and Dery keep their homes. “They reversed the good part and affirmed the bad part,” Bullock said.
Just like that, all of the homeowners were out of luck. The city’s municipal-development plan—according to the state’s highest court—constituted a public use and therefore gave the government the power to take private property through eminent domain. The fact that a specific use had not been identified for Susette’s block didn’t matter.
Bullock couldn’t believe it. Neither could Berliner.
Groping for something, anything positive in the decision, they noted the justices’ narrow 4–3 vote margin. The court was sharply divided. Bullock scanned down to the dissenting opinion.
“Look,” he said, “the dissent says the court is going further than it has ever gone in the past. It’s right in the first paragraph.”
Berliner knew what Bullock was thinking: they should appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. But neither of them had ever argued a case before the nation’s highest court. Just the idea seemed overwhelming. Where would they begin?
“The dissenting opinion makes the points we need for a petition to the Supreme Court,” Bullock said. “It’s right there in the opinion.”
Berliner knew one thing: their clients deserved to have the decision appealed. Every one of them was going to be devastated when they got the news, especially Susette, Von Winkle, and the Dery family. The Connecticut Supreme Court had snatched victory away from them.
Bullock and Berliner divided the clients into two call lists. Bullock called Susette first, reaching her on her cell phone at the hospital. When he told her they had lost—all of them—Susette didn’t say a word. Bullock would have thought he had lost the connection, but he could still hear all the hospital noise in the background.
“It’s an incredibly disappointing ruling,” he said softly. “Although it was close, the end result is still that they ruled in favor of the city and the NLDC.”
She still said nothing.
He told her they planned to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
That didn’t register. All she could hear was that they had lost.
“We will absolutely appeal this,” he vowed.
“Yeah, okay,” she said, her voice tapering off. “I understand.”
Susette didn’t bother saying good-bye before hanging up and burying her face in her hands. As a little girl growing up in Maine, she had learned to use socks to protect her hands against frigid winter air when her mother couldn’t afford to buy her mittens. It had proven to be a road map for what lay ahead. Throughout her life she had improvised to compensate for what she didn’t have. Suddenly she had an invalid husband and was on the verge of having no place to live.
Where would they go? How would she afford to support them? And what if the city came after her for the rent money she would now owe for unlawfully occupying the house for the previous two years?
She couldn’t help thinking she should have just gotten out when Pfizer had first come to town. God, what have I done? she thought.
When Bullock reached Matt Dery, he was still at work. He had already read the decision online from his office computer. He couldn’t believe it. There would be no neighborhood celebration at his house this time. A neighborhood funeral seemed more appropriate.
Billy Von Winkle was in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood when Bullock reached him with the bad news. He didn’t take it as badly as the others. Bullock talked up the prospect of going to the U.S. Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court is always a huge long shot,” he said. “But we will absolutely appeal this.”
“All right,