Case ID: us-ct-cl_58/html/0401-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

RICHARD T. ASHBY v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [No. 18-A.
    Decided May 28, 1923.]
    
      On the Proofs.
    
    
      Eminent domain; just compensation; interest. — See Qrymes v. United States, ante, p. 398.
    
    
      The Reporter's statement of the case:
    
      Mr. Alvin T. Embrey for the plaintiff. Mr. F. M. Chi-chester was on the briefs.
    
      
      Mr. B'ranle B. Orosthwaite, with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney General Robert H. Lovett, for the defendant.
    The following are the facts of the case as found by the court:
    I. The plaintiff up to November 4, 1918 was the owner in fee simple of lot 2, block 9, First Addition B, on the general plat of the town of Quantico, Prince William County, Virginia; said lot on an older map was designated as lot No. 22, block 72, and was conveyed as such to plaintiff by Hugh B. Hutchison by deed dated March 6, 1912. The said lot on March 1, 1917, was improved by a two-story frame building, 25 feet front and 80 feet deep, a stable, and a gasoline tank and filling station. The dimensions of said lot were 25 feet by 110 feet.
    II. The President of the United States under authority of the act of Congress of July 1, 1918, 40 Stat. 724, 738, by proclamation dated November 4, 1918, 40 Stat. 1874, 1880, .took title to certain lands described by metes and bounds, together with improvements thereon, including plaintiff’s lot and buildings described in Finding I, for a “ permanent United States Marine Coi'ps Base at Quantico, Virginia,” and authorized the Secretary of the Navy to take possession thereof for and on behalf of the United States. Accordingly on March 1, 1919, the Secretary took possession of plaintiff’s lot and improvements.
    III. Pursuant to the said statute and proclamation an award was made by the board, acting for the President, in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $5,565 as just compensation for the property taken as aforesaid.
    IV. The amount so awarded was not satisfactory to the plaintiff, who, pursuant to the act July 1,1918, supra elected to receive 75 per centum of said award and bring suit in the Court of Claims. The United States accordingly, on July 25, 1919, paid to the plaintiff the sum of $4,173.75, being 75 per centum of the amount of said award, which is all that he has been paid for the lot and buildings taken by the Government for military purposes, as set forth in Finding II.
    V. The plaintiff’s said property, taken by the Government as stated, was, on March 1, 1919, of the fair and reasonable value of $8,600. Computing interest on this sum at the rate of 6 per cent per annum from the date plaintiff’s possession ended, March 1, 1919, to date of judgment, May 28, 1923, amounting to $2,188.70, and adding this to the said value as a convenient method of ascertaining the just compensation to which plaintiff is entitled, gives the aggregate of these sums $10,788.70. Deducting from this aggregate the amount paid by the Government on the 25th day of July, 1919, $4,173.75 (being 75 per cent of the compensation fixed by the President) and allowing interest on this payment from the date thereof, July 25, 1919, to the date of judgment, May 28, 1923, $962.05, leaves the sum of $5,652.90 as the balance of the just compensation to which plaintiff is entitled for his property taken as aforesaid.
   MEMORÁNDUM BY THE COURT.

The court applies the principle announced in Seaboard Air Line By. Go. case, 261 U. S. 299.

It adopts as a convenient method of fixing just compensation the addition of interest for the time elapsing between the date plaintiff lost possession and the date of judgment, allowing, however, interest on the payment made by the Government.

Judgment for the plaintiff in the sum of $5,652.90.