Congress Funds Compensation Claims For New Mexico Fire Victims
April 6, 2022 was a windy day in the Las Dispensas area of the Santa Fe National Forest. But the U.S. National Forest Service moved forward anyway with its plan to set a prescribed burn for the area. The inevitable results were that the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon...
Flooding Taking Case Dismissed for Failure to Allege a Claim
To address the routine flooding that occurs in the Mississippi Delta, in the 1940s the federal government built the Yazoo Backwater Project—a levee system designed to protect portions of Issaquena County, Misssissippi, near the confluence of the Mississippi and Yazoo...
Federal Circuit Holds That Houston-Flooded Homeowners Have Compensable Property Rights
Following the devastating flooding of hundreds of privately owned properties in an area on the western edge of Houston, Buffalo Bayou, caused by flood control actions of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in response to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey, the flooded...
How to Prove You Have a Compensable Property Right
There are two elements to the taking test employed by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims: (1) whether the plaintiff has a cognizable Fifth Amendment property interest and (2) whether that property interest has been taken. The Court recently examined the first prong...
The Doctrine of Justifiable Uncertainty and Sovereign Immunity
What role do a property owner’s subjective expectations play in determining whether a taking claim has accrued in a gradual taking? Plaintiffs in a taking case brought by landowners in Louisiana, Biloxi Marsh Lands Corporation et. al, recently asked that the Court of...
Your Guide on How to Protect Your Rights in Federal Takings and Inverse Condemnation Actions
Are you facing a taking from the government? Need to understand what a taking is and what you can do about it? Read our Takings Law Guide.