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592 United States v. Cors, 337 U.S. 325 (1949). And see United States v. Toronto
Navigation Co., 338 U.S. 396 (1949).
593 Almota Farmers Elevator & Warehouse Co. v. United States, 409 U.S. 470
(1973). The dissent argued that since upon expiration of the lease only salvage value
of the improvements could be claimed by the lessee, just compensation should be
limited to that salvage value. Id. at 480.
culated, resort must be had to other data which will yield a fair
compensation. 589 However, the Court is resistant to alternative
standards, having repudiated reliance on the cost of substitute facilities.
590 Just compensation is especially difficult to compute in
wartime, when enormous disruptions in supply and governmentally
imposed price ceilings totally skew market conditions. Holding that
the reasons which underlie the rule of market value when a free
market exists apply as well where value is measured by a government-
fixed ceiling price, the Court permitted owners of cured pork
and black pepper to recover only the ceiling price for the commodities,
despite findings by the Court of Claims that the replacement
cost of the meat exceeded its ceiling price and that the pepper had
a ‘‘retention value’’ in excess of that price. 591 By a five-to-four decision,
the Court ruled that the Government was not obliged to pay
the present market value of a tug when the value had been greatly
enhanced as a consequence of the Government’s wartime needs. 592
Illustrative of the difficulties in applying the fair market
standard of just compensation are two cases decided by five-to-four
votes, one in which compensation was awarded and one in which
it was denied. Held entitled to compensation for the value of improvements
on leased property for the life of the improvements and
not simply for the remainder of the term of the lease was a company
that, while its lease had no renewal option, had occupied the
land for nearly 50 years and had every expectancy of continued occupancy
under a new lease. Just compensation, the Court said, required
taking into account the possibility that the lease would be
renewed, inasmuch as a willing buyer and a willing seller would
certainly have placed a value on the possibility. 593 However, when
the Federal Government condemned privately owned grazing land
of a rancher who had leased adjacent federally owned grazing land,
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1469
594 United States v. Fuller, 409 U.S. 488 (1973). The dissent argued that the
principle denying compensation for governmentally created value should apply only
when the Government was in fact acting in the use of its own property; here the
Government was acting only as a condemnor. Id. at 494.
595 Danforth v. United States, 308 U.S. 271, 284 (1939); Kirby Forest Industries
v. United States, 467 U.S. 1 (1984) (no interest due in straight condemnation action
for period between filing of notice of lis pendens and date of taking).
596 United States v. Klamath Indians, 304 U.S. 119, 123 (1938); Jacobs v. United
States, 290 U.S. 13, 17 (1933); Kirby Forest Industries v. United States, 467 U.S.
1 (1984) (substantial delay between valuation and payment necessitates procedure
for modifying award to reflect value at time of payment).
597 Albrecht v. United States, 329 U.S. 599 (1947).
598 Henkels v. Sutherland, 271 U.S. 298 (1926); see also Phelps v. United States,
274 U.S. 341 (1927).
599 United States v. Welch, 217 U.S. 333 (1910).
600 United States v. General Motors, 323 U.S. 373 (1945).
601 Bauman v. Ross, 167 U.S. 548 (1897); Sharp v. United States, 191 U.S. 341,
351–52, 354 (1903). Where the taking of a strip of land across a farm closed a priit
was held that the compensation owed need not include the value
attributable to the proximity to the federal land. The result would
have been different if the adjacent grazing land had been privately
owned, but the general rule is that government need not pay for
value that it itself creates. 594
Interest.—Ordinarily, property is taken under a condemnation
suit upon the payment of the money award by the condemner, and
no interest accrues. 595 If, however, the property is taken in fact before
payment is made, just compensation includes an increment
which, to avoid use of the term ‘‘interest,’’ the Court has called ‘‘an
amount sufficient to produce the full equivalent of that value paid
contemporaneously with the taking.’’ 596 If the owner and the Government
enter into a contract which stipulates the purchase price
for lands to be taken, with no provision for interest, the Fifth
Amendment is inapplicable and the landowner cannot recover interest
even though payment of the purchase price is delayed. 597
Where property of a citizen has been mistakenly seized by the Government
and it is converted into money which is invested, the
owner is entitled in recovering compensation to an allowance for
the use of his property. 598
Rights for Which Compensation Must Be Made.—If real
property is condemned the market value of that property must be
paid to the owner. But there are many kinds of property and many
uses of property which cause problems in computing just compensation.
It is not only the full fee simple interest in land that is compensable
‘‘property,’’ but also such lesser interests as easements 599
and leaseholds. 600 If only a portion of a tract is taken, the owner’s
compensation includes any element of value arising out of the relation
of the part taken to the entire tract. 601 On the other hand, if
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1470 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
vate right-of-way, an allowance was properly made for the value of the easement.
United States v. Welch, 217 U.S. 333 (1910).
602 Bauman v. Ross, 167 U.S. 548 (1897).
603 Monongahela Navigation Co. v. United States, 148 U.S. 312, 326 (1893).
604 Reichelderfer v. Quinn, 287 U.S. 315, 318 (1932).
605 Lynch v. United States, 292 U.S. 571, 579 (1934); Omnia Commercial Corp.
v. United States, 261 U.S. 502, 508 (1923).
606 James v. Campbell, 104 U.S. 356, 358 (1882). See also Hollister v. Benedict
Mfg. Co., 113 U.S. 59, 67 (1885).
607 Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto Co., 467 U.S. 986 (1984).
608 Monongahela Navigation Co. v. United States, 148 U.S. 312, 345 (1983).
609 Omnia Commercial Co. v. United States, 261 U.S. 502 (1923).
610 International Paper Co. v. United States, 282 U.S. 399 (1931).
611 Armstrong v. United States, 364 U.S. 40, 50 (1960).
612 Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Envtl. Study Group, 438 U.S. 59, 88 n.32 (1978).
the taking has in fact benefitted the owner, the benefit may be set
off against the value of the land condemned, 602 although any supposed
benefit which the owner may receive in common with all
from the public use to which the property is appropriated may not
be set off. 603 When certain lands were condemned for park purposes,
with resulting benefits set off against the value of the property
taken, the subsequent erection of a fire station on the property
instead was held not to have deprived the owner of any part of his
just compensation. 604
Interests in intangible as well as tangible property are subject
to protection under the Taking Clause. Thus compensation must be
paid for the taking of contract rights, 605 patent rights, 606 and trade
secrets. 607 So too, the franchise of a private corporation is property
that cannot be taken for public use without compensation. Upon
condemnation of a lock and dam belonging to a navigation company,
the Government was required to pay for the franchise to take
tolls as well as for the tangible property. 608 The frustration of a
private contract by the requisitioning of the entire output of a steel
manufacturer is not a taking for which compensation is required,
609 but government requisitioning from a power company of
all the electric power which could be produced by use of the water
diverted through its intake canal, thereby cutting off the supply of
a lessee which had a right, amounting to a corporeal hereditament
under state law, to draw a portion of that water, entitles the lessee
to compensation for the rights taken. 610 When, upon default of a
ship-builder, the Government, pursuant to contract with him, took
title to uncompleted boats, the material men, whose liens under
state laws had attached when they supplied the shipbuilder, had
a compensable interest equal to whatever value these liens had
when the Government ‘‘took’’ or destroyed them in perfecting its
title. 611 As a general matter, there is no property interest in the
continuation of a rule of law. 612 And, even though state participa-
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1471
613 Bowen v. Public Agencies Opposed to Social Security Entrapment, 477 U.S.
41 (1986).
614 ‘‘Congress is not, by virtue of having instituted a social welfare program,
bound to continue it at all, much less at the same benefit level.’’ Bowen v. Gilliard,
483 U.S. 587, 604 (1987).
615 Mitchell v. United States, 267 U.S. 341 (1925); United States ex rel. TVA v.
Powelson, 319 U.S. 266 (1943); United States v. Petty Motor Co., 327 U.S. 372
(1946). For consideration of the problem of fair compensation in government-supervised
bankruptcy reorganization proceedings, see New Haven Inclusion Cases, 399
U.S. 392, 489–95 (1970).
616 United States v. General Motors Corp., 323 U.S. 373, 382 (1945).
617 United States v. General Motors Corp., 323 U.S. 373 (1945). In Kimball
Laundry Co. v. United States, 338 U.S. 1 (1949), the Government seized the tenant’s
plant for the duration of the war, which turned out to be less than the full duration
of the lease, and, having no other means of serving its customers, the laundry suspended
business for the period of military occupancy; the Court narrowly held that
the Government must compensate for the loss in value of the business attributable
to the destruction of its ‘‘trade routes,’’ that is, for the loss of customers built up
over the years and for the continued hold of the laundry upon their patronage. See
also United States v. Pewee Coal Co., 341 U.S. 114 (1951) (in temporary seizure,
Government must compensate for losses attributable to increased wage payments by
the Government).
tion in the social security system was originally voluntary, a state
had no property interest in its right to withdraw from the program
when Congress had expressly reserved the right to amend the law
and the agreement with the state. 613 Similarly, there is no right
to the continuation of governmental welfare benefits. 614
Consequential Damages.—The Fifth Amendment requires
compensation for the taking of ‘‘property,’’ hence does not require
payment for losses or expenses incurred by property owners or tenants
incidental to or as a consequence of the taking of real property,
if they are not reflected in the market value of the property
taken. 615 ‘‘Whatever of property the citizen has the Government
may take. When it takes the property, that is, the fee, the lease,
whatever, he may own, terminating altogether his interest, under
the established law it must pay him for what is taken, not more;
and he must stand whatever indirect or remote injuries are properly
comprehended within the meaning of ‘consequential damage’
as that conception has been defined in such cases. Even so the consequences
often are harsh. For these whatever remedy may exist
lies with Congress.’’ 616 An exception to the general principle has
been established by the Court where only a temporary occupancy
is assumed; then the taking body must pay the value which a hypothetical
long-term tenant in possession would require when leasing
to a temporary occupier requiring his removal, including in the
market value of the interest the reasonable cost of moving out the
personal property stored in the premises, the cost of storage of
goods against their sale, and the cost of returning the property to
the premises. 617 Another exception to the general rule occurs with
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1472 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
618 United States v. Miller, 317 U.S. 369, 375–76 (1943). ‘‘On the other hand,’’
the Court added, ‘‘if the taking has in fact benefitted the remainder, the benefit may
be set off against the value of the land taken.’’ Id.
619 United States v. Jones, 109 U.S. 513 (1883); Bragg v. Weaver, 251 U.S. 57
(1919).
620 28 U.S.C. § 1403. On the other hand, inverse condemnation actions (claims
that the United States has taken property without compensation) are governed by
the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1), which vests the Court of Federal Claims (formerly
the Claims Court) with jurisdiction over claims against the United States
‘‘founded . . . upon the Constitution.’’ See Preseault v. ICC, 494 U.S. 1 (1990).
621 Bauman v. Ross, 167 U.S. 548 (1897). Even when a jury is provided to determine
the amount of compensation, it is the rule at least in federal court that the
trial judge is to instruct the jury with regard to the criteria and this includes determination
of ‘‘all issues’’ other than the precise issue of the amount of compensation,
so that the judge decides those matters relating to what is computed in making the
calculation. United States v. Reynolds, 397 U.S. 14 (1970).
622 Rule 71A(h), Fed. R. Civ. P. These commissions have the same powers as a
court-appointed master.
623 Monongahela Navigation Co. v. United States, 148 U.S. 312, 327 (1893).
624 Long Island Water Supply Co. v. Brooklyn, 166 U.S. 685 (1897). In federal
courts, reports of Rule 71A commissions are to be accepted by the court unless
‘‘clearly erroneous.’’ Fed. R. Civ. P. 53(e)(2).
625 Backus v. Fort Street Union Depot Co., 169 U.S. 557, 569 (1898).
a partial taking, in which the government takes less than the entire
parcel of land and leaves the owner with a portion of what he
had before; in such a case compensation includes any diminished
value of the remaining portion (‘‘severance damages’’) as well as
the value of the taken portion. 618
Enforcement of Right to Compensation.—The nature and
character of the tribunal to determine compensation is in the discretion
of the legislature, and may be a regular court, a special legislative
court, a commission, or an administrative body. 619 Proceedings
to condemn land for the benefit of the United States are
brought in the federal district court for the district in which the
land is located. 620 The estimate of just compensation is not required
to be made by a jury but may be made by a judge or entrusted
to a commission or other body. 621 Federal courts may appoint
a commission in condemnation actions to resolve the compensation
issue. 622 If a body other than a court is designated to determine
just compensation, its decision must be subject to judicial
review, 623 although the scope of review may be limited by the legislature.
624 When the judgment of a state court with regard to the
amount of compensation is questioned, the Court’s review is restricted.
‘‘All that is essential is that in some appropriate way, before
some properly constituted tribunal, inquiry shall be made as
to the amount of compensation, and when this has been provided
there is that due process of law which is required by the Federal
Constitution.’’ 625 ‘‘[T]here must be something more than an ordinary
honest mistake of law in the proceedings for compensation be-
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1473
626 McGovern v. City of New York, 229 U.S. 363, 370–71 (1913).
627 229 U.S. at 371. And see Provo Bench Canal Co. v. Tanner, 239 U.S. 323
(1915); Appleby v. City of Buffalo, 221 U.S. 524 (1911).
628 Legal Tender Cases, 79 U.S. (12 Wall.) 457, 551 (1871). The Fifth Amendment
‘‘has never been supposed to have any bearing upon, or to inhibit laws that
indirectly work harm and loss to individuals,’’ the Court explained.
629 Meyer v. City of Richmond, 172 U.S. 82 (1898).
630 Sauer v. City of New York, 206 U.S. 536 (1907). But see the litigation in the
state courts cited by Justice Cardozo in Roberts v. City of New York, 295 U.S. 264,
278–82 (1935).
631 Chicago, B. & Q. R.R. v. City of Chicago, 166 U.S. 226 (1897).
632 Manigault v. Springs, 199 U.S. 473 (1905).
fore a party can make out that the State has deprived him of his
property unconstitutionally.’’ 626 Unless, by its rulings of law, the
state court prevented a complainant from obtaining substantially
any compensation, its findings as to the amount of damages will
not be overturned on appeal, even though as a consequence of error
therein the property owner received less than he was entitled to. 627
When Property Is Taken
The issue whether one’s property has been ‘‘taken’’ with the
consequent requirement of just compensation can hardly arise
when government institutes condemnation proceedings directed to
it. Where, however, physical damage results to property because of
government action, or where regulatory action limits activity on the
property or otherwise deprives it of value, whether there has been
a taking in the Fifth Amendment sense becomes critical.
Government Activity Not Directed at the Property.—The
older cases proceeded on the basis that the requirement of just
compensation for property taken for public use referred only to ‘‘direct
appropriation, and not to consequential injuries resulting from
the exercise of lawful power.’’ 628 Accordingly, a variety of consequential
injuries were held not to constitute takings: damage to
abutting property resulting from the authorization of a railroad to
erect tracts, sheds, and fences over a street; 629 similar deprivations,
lessening the circulation of light and air and impairing access
to premises, resulting from the erection of an elevated viaduct
over a street, or resulting from the changing of a grade in the
street. 630 Nor was government held liable for the extra expense
which the property owner must obligate in order to ward off the
consequence of the governmental action, such as the expenses incurred
by a railroad in planking an area condemned for a crossing,
constructing gates, and posting gatemen, 631 or by a landowner in
raising the height of the dikes around his land to prevent their partial
flooding consequent to private construction of a dam under
public licensing. 632
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1474 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
633 Pumpelly v. Green Bay Co., 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 166, 177–78 (1872).
634 United States v. Dickinson, 331 U.S. 745, 748 (1947).
635 Portsmouth Harbor Land & Hotel Co. v. United States, 260 U.S. 327 (1922).
Cf. Portsmouth Harbor Land & Hotel Co. v. United States, 250 U.S. 1 (1919); Peabody
v. United States, 231 U.S. 530 (1913).
636 United States v. Causby, 328 U.S. 256 (1946); Griggs v. Allegheny County,
369 U.S. 84 (1962). A corporation chartered by Congress to construct a tunnel and
operate railway trains therein was held liable for damages in a suit by one whose
property was so injured by smoke and gas forced from the tunnel as to amount to
a taking. Richards v. Washington Terminal Co., 233 U.S. 546 (1914).
637 ‘‘The phrase ‘inverse condemnation’ generally describes a cause of action
against a government defendant in which a landowner may recover just compensation
for a ‘taking’ of his property under the Fifth Amendment, even though formal
condemnation proceedings in exercise of the sovereign’s power of eminent domain
have not been instituted by the government entity.’’ San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
v. City of San Diego, 450 U.S. 621, 638 n.2 (1981) (Justice Brennan dissenting). See
also United States v. Clarke, 445 U.S. 253, 257 (1980); Agins v. City of Tiburon,
447 U.S. 255, 258 n.2 (1980).
638 Gibson v. United States, 166 U.S. 269 (1897); Lewis Blue Point Oyster Co.
v. Briggs, 229 U.S. 82 (1913); United States v. Chandler-Dunbar Water Power Co.,
229 U.S. 53 (1913); United States v. Appalachian Power Co., 311 U.S. 377 (1940);
But the Court also decided long ago that land can be ‘‘taken’’
in the constitutional sense by physical invasion or occupation by
the government, as occurs when government floods land. 633 A later
formulation was that ‘‘[p]roperty is taken in the constitutional
sense when inroads are made upon an owner’s use of it to an extent
that, as between private parties, a servitude has been acquired
either by agreement or in course of time.’’ 634 It was thus held that
the government had imposed a servitude for which it must compensate
the owner on land adjoining its fort when it repeatedly
fired the guns at the fort across the land and had established a fire
control service there. 635 In two major cases, the Court held that the
lessees or operators of airports were required to compensate the
owners of adjacent land when the noise, glare, and fear of injury
occasioned by the low altitude overflights during takeoffs and landings
made the land unfit for the use to which the owners had applied
it. 636 Eventually, the term ‘‘inverse condemnation’’ came to be
used to refer to such cases where the government has not instituted
formal condemnation proceedings, but instead the property
owner has sued for just compensation, claiming that governmental
action or regulation has ‘‘taken’’ his property. 637
Navigable Waters.—The repeated holdings that riparian
ownership is subject to the power of Congress to regulate commerce
constitute an important reservation to the developing law of liability
in the taking area. When damage results consequentially from
an improvement to a river’s navigable capacity, or from an improvement
on a nonnavigable river designed to affect navigability
elsewhere, it is generally not a taking of property but merely an
exercise of a servitude to which the property is always subject. 638
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1475
United States v. Commodore Park, Inc., 324 U.S. 386 (1945); United States v. Willow
River Power Co., 324 U.S. 499 (1945); United States v. Twin City Power Co.,
350 U.S. 222 (1956); United States v. Rands, 389 U.S. 121 (1967).
639 United States v. Virginia Elec. & Power Co., 365 U.S. 624, 628 (1961).
640 United States v. Lynah, 188 U.S. 445 (1903); United States v. Cress, 243
U.S. 316 (1917); Jacobs v. United States, 290 U.S. 13 (1933); United States v. Dickinson,
331 U.S. 745 (1947); United States v. Kansas City Ins. Co., 339 U.S. 799
(1950); United States v. Virginia Electric & Power Co., 365 U.S. 624 (1961).
641 Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U.S. 164 (1979); Vaughn v. Vermillion
Corp., 444 U.S. 206 (1979).
642 Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U.S. 623, 668–69 (1887). See also The Legal Tender
Cases, 79 U.S. (12 Wall.) 457, 551 (1871); Chicago, B. & Q. R.R. v. City of Chicago,
166 U.S. 226, 255 (1897); Omnia Commercial Co. v. United States, 261 U.S. 502
(1923); Norman v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R., 294 U.S. 240 (1935).
643 1 NICHOLS’ THE LAW OF EMINENT DOMAIN § 1.42 (J. Sackman, 3d rev. ed.
1973).
644 E.g., Hadacheck v. Sebastian, 239 U.S. 394 (1915) (ordinance upheld restricting
owner of brick factory from continuing his use after residential growth surrounding
factory made use noxious, even though value of property was reduced by
more than 90%); Miller v. Schoene, 276 U.S. 272 (1928) (no compensation due
owner’s loss of red cedar trees ordered destroyed because they were infected with
rust that threatened contamination of neighboring apple orchards: preferment of
public interest in saving cash crop to property interest in ornamental trees was rational).
This exception does not apply to lands above the ordinary highwater
mark of a stream, 639 hence is inapplicable to the damage the
Government may do to such ‘‘fast lands’’ by causing overflows, by
erosion, and otherwise, consequent on erection of dams or other improvements.
640 And, when previously nonnavigable waters are
made navigable by private investment, government may not, without
paying compensation, simply assert a navigation servitude and
direct the property owners to afford public access. 641
Regulatory Takings.—While it is established that government
may take private property, with compensation, to promote
the public interest, that interest also may be served by regulation
of property use pursuant to the police power, and for years there
was broad dicta that no one may claim damages due to a police
regulation designed to secure the common welfare, especially in the
area of health and safety regulations. 642 ‘‘The distinguishing characteristic
between eminent domain and the police power is that the
former involves the taking of property because of its need for the
public use while the latter involves the regulation of such property
to prevent the use thereof in a manner that is detrimental to the
public interest.’’ 643 But regulation may deprive an owner of most
or all beneficial use of his property and may destroy the values of
the property for the purposes to which it is suited. 644 The older
cases flatly denied the possibility of compensation for this diminu-
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1476 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
645 Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U.S. 623, 668–69 (1887) (ban on manufacture of liquor
greatly devalued plaintiff’s plant and machinery; no taking possible simply because
of legislation deeming a use injurious to public health and welfare).
646 Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 415 (1922). See also Lucas
v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003 (1992) (a regulation that deprives
a property owner of all beneficial use of his property requires compensation, unless
the owner’s propose
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