Case ID: us-ct-cl_64/html/0310-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Moss, Judge,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

EDWARD J. VILSACK, JOSEPH G. VILSACK, AND ANNE L. VILSACK, ADMINISTRATRIX OF THE ESTATE OF AUGUST A. VILSACK, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES
    [No. F-114.
    Decided December 5, 1927]
    
      On the Proofs
    
    
      ;Eminent domain; value of property taken. — Plaintiffs given judgment for the fair and reasonable market value of their property as of the date of taking.
    
      The Reporter's statement of the caso:
    
      Mr. Edmond G. Fletcher for the plaintiff.
    
      Mr. Dan M. Jackson, with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney General Merman J. Galloway, for the defendant.
    The court made special findings of fact, as follows:
    I. The plaintiffs, Edward J. Vilsack and Joseph G. Vil-sack, are now and were at the time of the filing of this action, residents and citizens of the United States, residing in the city of Pittsburgh, in the State of Pennsylvania. August A. Vilsack, a citizen and resident of the United States during his lifetime, departed this life on the 28th day of May, 1920, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and on June 1, 1920, Anne L. Vilsack was duly appointed administratrix of the estate of August A. Vilsack. The said Anne L. Vilsack was at the time of the filing of this action and is now a citizen and resident of the United States, residing in the city of Pittsburgh, State of Pennsylvania.
    II. On December 2, 1918, plaintiffs, Edward J. Vilsack, Joseph G. Vilsack, and August A. Vilsack, were the owners of and in possession of lots Nos. 7198, 7199, 7200, 7224, 7225, 7226, and 7227, as laid out and appearing on plan “A” of the lots and blocks in the city of Cape May, as recorded in Plan Book No. 1, pages 31 and 32, in the office of the clerk of the county of Cape May. The above-described lots are included within a tract of land described as follows:
    “ Beginning for the same at the point of intersection of the westerly line of Yale Avenue if extended in a northerly direction with the high-water line of Cold Spring Harbor, which said avenue is shown on a certain plan of lots of the Cape May Beal Estate Company, which said plan is called ‘ Plan A’ and is duly recorded in the office of the clerk of the county of Cape May, New Jersey, in Plan Book No. 1, pages 31 and 32; thence in a general easterly, then southerly, and then westerly direction following the high-water line of Cold Spring Harbor, Cold Spring Inlet, and the Atlantic Ocean, to its point of intersection with the westerly line of said Yale Avenue extended in a southerly direction; thence in a line of said Yale Avenue to the point of beginning. Containing in all three hundred and forty-nine acres, more or less,”
    the same being the tract of land that was taken over by a proclamation of the President of the United States pursuant to the provisions of ch. 77 of the act of Congress of October 6, 1917 (40 Stat. 344), entitled “An act to provide for the acquisition of an air station for the United States Navy,” as amended by ch. 114 of the act of Congress of July 1, 1918 (40 Stat. 704, 720, 721, 738), the said proclamation of the President of the United States being dated December 2, 1918, for and on behalf of the United States for the use of a naval station.
    III. Pursuant to the authority conferred upon the President by the provisions of said acts of Congress, the President, acting through the Secretary of the Navy, on August 10, 1921, determined the sum of $3,975 to be the amount of just compensation due from the United States to the plaintiffs herein as payment for lots Nos. 7198, 7199, 7200, 7224, 7225, 7226, and 7227, as laid out and appearing on plan “A” of the lots and blocks in the city of Cape May, New Jersey, taken over by the United States for a naval aviation station.
    IY. On September 8, 1921, the plaintiffs were notified of the President’s determination and award, and on March 18, 1926, the plaintiffs notified the President that his aforesaid determination of just compensation was unsatisfactory in amount, and thereupon demanded the immediate payment of 75% thereof, or the sum of $2,981.25. No part of said award as determined has been paid by the United States to the plaintiffs.
    On March 26,‘1926, Edward J. Yilsack and others filed their petition in this court (No. F-114) to recover additional compensation, and on April 15, 1926, filed their petition to recover 75 per cent of the amount of said award. These two cases have been by order of court consolidated and heard as one.
    Y. On December 2, 1918, the fair and reasonable market value of the seven lots and parcels of land, the same being the lots described in Finding II hereof, was the sum of $5,100.
    The court decided that plaintiffs were entitled to recover $5,100 with interest from December 2, 1918, until paid.
   Moss, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The only question for determination in this case is the fair and reasonable market value as of December 2, 1918, of the seven lots and parcels of land described in Finding II and taken by the Government on that date. The court has found this value to be $5,100.

GRAham, Judge; Booth, Judge'; and Campbell, Chief Justice, concur.