Marzulla Law Blog
Which Way to the Ark?
At 11:30 p.m. on September 13, 2013, in Larimer County, Colorado, in response to a slow-moving cold front dropping record amounts of rainfall, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation opened the flood gates of the Olympus Dam, which Reclamation controls and operates as part of...
Federal Circuit Announces Expanded Federal Indian Trust Responsibilities
Just as the Department of the Interior thought that its Indian trust responsibilities were drawing to a close after the resolution of the massive Cobell Indian trust litigation, the Federal Circuit today opened up the flood gates to a whole new area of government...
High Court in the Deep Waters of State Sovereign Immunity and Copyright Protection
Frederick L. Allen, and his production company Nautilus Productions, have been the exclusive photographers of the shipwreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge since 1998. In 2013, Allen discovered that the State of North Carolina had allegedly been using his videos online...
Caring for Those Who Care for Our Veterans
As the Civil War drew to a close, President Lincoln spoke of the nation’s duty “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.” Today the primary...
Gone for Good or Just Gone
Generally, the operation of the National Trails System Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1247(d), results in a compensable taking if the landowner possesses a “state law reversionary interest” in land subject to a railroad right-of-way that has been converted to trail use. The taking...
The Relentless March of Time
Over a year ago 62 landowners near the Dogtooth Bend Peninsula in southern Illinois sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Court of Federal Claims for taking their property rights. Jackson-Greenly Farm, Inc. v. United States, No 18-cv-1141L (August 30, 2019),...
Taking the Long Road to the Court of Federal Claims
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims recently cleared the way to hear a case involving the uncompensated taking of property (a temporary dining facility and equipment) owned and operated in Iraq by Kuwait Pearls, a catering company. Kuwait Pearls operated the dining...
Historic NYC Bookstore Battles Landmark Designation
Why would New York City’s Strand, one of the world’s largest and most venerable independent bookstores, oppose city designation as a historic landmark? According to the Strand’s owner, this designation will add a lot of municipal red tape that may sink her business....
Third-Party Beneficiary & Implied-In-Fact Contracts
In Fox Logistics & Construction Co. v. United States, No. 18-139C (September 25, 2019), the plaintiff, a subcontractor, alleged that the Government had breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing under an Air Force contract for construction of the Hindand Air...
The Common Fund Doctrine Applies in the Court of Federal Claims
Kane County, Utah v. United States, Nos. 17-739C; 17-1991C (September 25, 2019), is a class action brought in the Court of Federal Claims by two subclasses of local government entities claiming that the federal government owed them additional payments under the...