Court of Federal Claims | Federal Circuit

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In this post — the fifth and penultimate post in a series of deeper dives that we’re posting about June’s U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, No. 20-107 (June 23, 2021) — we’ll be trying to take some educated guesses about what the decision means for the future.

Here are all of the posts in our Cedar Point series:

And in case you missed the live webcast on Friday, July 16, 2021 that featured expert analysis of the case, please don’t miss listening to the recording of ALI-CLE’s “Takings and Eminent Domain After Cedar Point: What …

Continue Reading Cedar Point Part V: Help Us Help You

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Today’s case: a short per curiam opinion from the Federal Circuit, Straw v. United States, No. 21-1596 (July 14, 2021).

The court affirmed the Court of Federal Claims’ dismissal of a takings claim that alleged that the plaintiff’s property was taken when the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s dismissal of the plaintiff’s Federal Tort Claims Act claim for missing the statute of limitations deadline. 

You know it wasn’t going to go well for the plaintiff when the court’s analysis (slip op. at 3) begins with this: “This appeal is frivolous.” The CFC takings claim was merely a “collateral attack” on the district court’s judgment, the court concluded. “Because Mr. Straw’s takings claim depends on him challenging the Georgia district court’s decision—which is final and preclusive—the Claims Court correctly held that it cannot grant the relief he seeks.” Slip op. at 4.

Besides, this isn’t really a takings claim…

Continue Reading Fed Cir: No Judicial Taking When CA11 Dismissed Tort Claims

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following. It’s not exactly a “new” cert petition, but one which we missed when it was filed back in February.

This one comes up via the Court of Federal Claims and the Federal Circuit, with the latter vacating the CFC’s award of partial compensation, concluding that the petitioner did not have a compensable property interest in the entire property it alleged was taken.

The petitioner bought some of a steel mill’s assets in bankruptcy. Those assets included piles of some of what is known as slag, scrap, and kish. EPA later determined that the piles were leaching contaminants. And you know what that means: remediation. EPA reduced the size of some of the piles and left others in place. The owner sued for a taking of the kish, slag, and scrap the EPA recovered from the site. 

After trial…

Continue Reading New(ish) Cert Petition: Kish, Scrap, And Slag Takings From Environmental Remediation

OK, we get that law is a serious business and that one should never make light of others’ situations. Each person’s claim is important to them, at the very least.

But after reading today’s Federal Circuit opinion (unpublished, nonprecedential) in Bench Creek Ranch, LLC v. United States, No. 20-2151 (May 7, 2021), we couldn’t help but make a couple of lighthearted movie references.

First, the above clip from one of the “Bill and Ted” movies is there because the Bench Creek case alleged that the feds are liable for a taking due to its failure to prevent wild horses from invading their land where they drank Bench Creek’s water.

Bench Creek alleged in its complaint that, after a wildfire in July 2017, hundreds of wild horses on federal lands—owned by the United States and managed by the Bureau of Land Management—drank water that belonged to Bench Creek under a…

Continue Reading Fed Cir (unpub.): Feds Not Liable For Taking When Wyld Stallyns Drink Your Milkshake

Go read the Federal Circuit’s opinion in Sandwich Isles Communications, Inc. v. United States, No. 20-1446 (Apr. 1, 2021), especially the very-dense fact section. There’s a lot there: acronyms, bureaucracy-speak, family-insider politician dealings, tax fraud convictions, and the like. So what’s a case like this doing in the Court of Federal Claims and the Federal Circuit, which (for our purposes) deals with takings claims against the United States?

Skip forward to page 7, where we get to the heart of the plaintiff’s complaint:

In January 2019, SIC filed this suit in the Claims Court, alleging that the cumulative effect of the FCC’s reductions in SIC’s federal subsidies resulted in a taking of property without just compensation.

Slip op. at 7 (footnote omitted).

Yes, you read that right: this was a violation of the Givings Clause.

Consequently, the CFC dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. First, because…

Continue Reading Fed Cir: FCC Giving Isn’t A Taking – Don’t Disguise Your Challenge To Reduction In Subsidies As A Takings Case

A landowner in Afghanistan sued the United States for taking land he allegedly owned for use as a combat base.

Prove you own this land, the Government responded. The first step to doing that is to attach to the complaint documents that make out a prima facie case of ownership. Otherwise, dismissal for failure to state a takings claim (no plausible allegation that the plaintiff owned “property”). 

The plaintiff complied with the Court of Federal Claims’ order for more definite statement and attached to his complaint documents he said showed he owned the property which the U.S. Army used to build Combat Outpost Millett. The CFC concluded these were not good enough under Afghanistan law (specifically, something called the “Law of Land Management Affairs,” which the court noted was “revised by the Taliban in 2000 and by the Afghan government in 2008[.]” This law looks for formal registration, which none…

Continue Reading Fed Cir: No Taking Because Plaintiff Can’t Prove Ownership Of Afghanistan Property Army Used For Combat Base

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Yes, it starts tomorrow, Thursday, January 28, 2021, but we’re “remote” this year, so it is not too late to register to join us for the 38th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference. This is the “big one” where the nation’s best practitioners, scholars, jurists, and other industry professionals gather to talk shop about the subjects we know and love.

Details here (ALI-CLE’s page with faculty, agenda, and times), or here (a recent episode of Clint Schumacher’s Eminent Domain Podcast, where we preview the Conference). Here’s your chance to be a part of what is the best conference on these topics.

We have set it up to take advantage of the remote format, and tuition has been reduced (thank you to ALI-CLE for recognizing this, and for our sponsors for being so generous). We’re seeing a lot of first-time registrations, and this is a great opportunity…

Continue Reading Still Time To Join Us: ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (Online!) This Thursday & Friday. Tuition Deals! #EminentDomain2021

ALI-CLE 2021 Bingo card

If you “get” this, you should be registered for the 38th Annual Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, to be held remotely on Thursday and Friday, January 28-29, 2021.

The list is growing rapidly, and you need to join us!

This is the “big one” where the nation’s best practitioners, scholars, jurists, and other industry professionals gather to talk shop about the subjects we know and love. We’re having programs with intriguing subjects such as “Planning to Win: Practical Strategies for a Successful Inverse Condemnation Case,” “How Do I Keep My Firm’s Doors Open When the Courthouse Doors Are Closed? Making Your Practice More Efficient When You Can’t Try Cases,” “Where Is the Supreme Court Headed on Takings Cases? Regulatory Takings Update and Cedar Point Preview,” “No Show and All Tell: Breaking News in Property Rights and Takings,” “More Than the Fifth Amendment: Other Tools for Upholding …

Continue Reading Your 2021 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (Jan 28-29, Remote) BINGO Card

Our thanks to Clint Schumacher for having us on his program to talk about the upcoming Conference. We’re “remote” this year, but that means a different approach to our presentations (and a very modest tuition!).

We’re having programs with intriguing subjects such as “Planning to Win: Practical Strategies for a Successful Inverse Condemnation Case,” “How Do I Keep My Firm’s Doors Open When the Courthouse Doors Are Closed? Making Your Practice More Efficient When You Can’t Try Cases,” “Where Is the Supreme Court Headed on Takings Cases? Regulatory Takings Update and Cedar Point Preview,” “No Show and All Tell: Breaking News in Property Rights and Takings,” “More Than the Fifth Amendment: Other Tools for Upholding Property Rights,” “Evaluating Lockdown, Moratorium, and Emergency Claims,” and more (including Ethics for those of you in MCLE jurisdictions). We’ll have a post with more details. 

Register now!Continue Reading Eminent Domain Podcast’s Preview Of The Upcoming ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference