In United States v. 191.07 Acres of Land (Martinek) (No. 04-35131, Apr. 4, 2007), the Ninth Circuit addressed two interesting issues in the context of a federal taking of unpatented gold- mining claims in Alaska’s Denali National Park.
The first is a question of appellate procedure: whether a party waives the right to appeal the denial of a demand for a jury trial by not seeking an immediate interlocutory appeal.
The government instituted eminent domain proceedings against the landowner (which entitles the landowner to request a jury trial on the issue of just compensation), and the landowner filed a claim for inverse condemnation (which does not carry with it the right to jury trial). The trial court held that the landowner had only a single claim for compensation, and the parties stipulated that the taking occurred on a date earlier than the government’s declaration of taking. Consequently, the court held