June 11, 2007.  Saturday marked the last day of business at Amaral Auto Sales in Harrison.  Manny Amaral and his two sons loaded their BMW's, Audi's, Mercedes Benz's and other cars onto car transporters and headed out to their new location on River Road in Lyndhurst.

Amaral is trying to take some of his 25 years of good will with him to his new location.  Amaral Auto Sales announced its relocation on its website along with a Stop Eminent Domain Abuse advertisement.  The scars of having to uproot after 25 years of being in Harrison are evident.   What does the future hold?  According to our sources, It may be a return to Harrison. 

At the end of May, New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen issued an updated report on Eminent Domain abuse in New Jersey.  Many of the issues raised in the Public Advocates report exist in Amaral's appeal which is currently pending in the Appellate Division.  Amaral lost the right to stay on his property because his stay was denied but his appeal (and that of his neighbor Steven Adler) are pending in the Appellate Division.  Given the Public Advocate's updated report and a renewed public awareness of cases such as Amaral's, the Appellate Division or the New Jersey Supreme Court may look more favorably upon property owners than they have in the past. The Public Advocate was critical of the judiciary's review of past eminent domain cases. 

The Harrison Redevelopment Agency (HRA) may have bigger problems than other municipal agencies because it appears to have violated the State statute that allowed for its creation and the local ordinance which mimicked the statute.  The issue which was touched upon by Superior Court Judge Maurice J. Gallipoli sitting in Jersey City was that no more than two of its members were elected officials or employees of the Town of Harrison.  Gallipoli refused to allow discovery in the case so not all the facts were before the court.

Amaral and Adler argued that Anthony Comprelli was an employee because he was a Town Historian as well as a Superintendent of Harrison's Public School.  The Harrison Redevelopment Agency agreed that Mayor Raymond McDonough and Thomas Powell were an elected official and a town employee respectively  they disagreed that Comprelli was an employee.  Judge Gallipoli sided with the HRA finding that Comprelli's role as Town Historian was ministerial and thus he was not an employee as contemplated by the statute.  The Adler Petition however sets forth other former and current employees of the Town which indicate a clear violation of the statute and/or  a violation of the spirit of the law.  The Amaral and Adler cases present compelling arguments that may be fertile ground for the New Jersey Judiciary to right some wrongs of its past.

Manny Amaral may ultimately have the last word.  A cloud now lingers over the Amaral property as it sits vacant..  One wonders will a Bank provide funding to a project when the former owners still has a pending appeal?  The other projects which are in Harrison's Redevelopment Zone were outright purchases under the threat of condemnation and/or property already owned by the Town.  The Hampton Inn hotel was property purchased from the Town of Harrison.  The Town also sold the John F. Kennedy stadium property to build the River Park Townhouses.  The Red Bull Stadium property was acquired as a private purchase under the threat of condemnation as was the former Hartz Mountain complex.  The Amaral and Adler cases will be the first time that the Appellate Division reviews the composition of the HRA.