Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/440/202.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 23:26:31+00:00

Document:
UNITED STATES v. BODCAW CO.
Respondent property owner's expenses in securing appraisals of the land involved in the United States' easement condemnation action held not to constitute part of the "just compensation" required by the Fifth Amendment for the taking of private property for public use. Since this litigation no more than reflects the rather typical situation where the landowner is dissatisfied with the Government's valuation, the case does not qualify as an exception to the general rule that indirect costs to the property owner caused by the taking of his land are generally not part of the just compensation to which he is constitutionally entitled.
Certiorari granted; 574 F.2d 238, reversed and remanded.
The Fifth Amendment forbids the taking of "private property . . . for public use, without just compensation." This Court has often faced the problem of defining just compensation. One principle from which it has not deviated is that just compensation "is for the property, and not to the owner." Monongahela Navigation Co. v. United States, 148 U.S. 312, 326 (1893). As a result, indirect costs to the property owner caused by the taking of his land are generally not part of the just compensation to which he is constitutionally entitled. See, e. g., Dohany v. Rogers, 281 U.S. 362 (1930); Mitchell v. United States, 267 U.S. 341 (1925); Joslin Mfg. Co. v. Providence, 262 U.S. 668 (1923). See generally 4A J. Sackman, Nichols' Law of Eminent Domain, ch. 14 (rev. 3d ed. 1977). Thus, "[a]ttorneys' fees and expenses are not embraced within just compensation . . . ." Dohany v. Rogers, supra, at 368.
Perhaps it would be fair or efficient to compensate a landowner for all the costs he incurs as a result of a condemnation action. See Ayer, Allocating the Costs of Determining "Just Compensation," 21 Stan. L. Rev. 693 (1969). Congress moved in that direction with Pub. L. 91-646, 84 Stat. 1894, codified at 42 U.S.C. 4601-4655. Among other costs which the Act placed on the Government were the property owner's reasonable litigation expenses (including attorney's fees) when a condemnation action is dismissed as being unauthorized, when the Government abandons a condemnation, or when the property owner has recovered through an inverse condemnation action under the Tucker Act. 42 U.S.C. 4654. But such compensation is a matter of legislative grace rather than constitutional command. The respondent's appraisal expenses were not part of the "just compensation" required by the Fifth Amendment.
The petition for certiorari is granted, the judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
[ Footnote 1 ] The Court of Appeals reduced the award by the amount of compensation allowed by the trial court for expert witness fees.
[ Footnote 2 ] The Court of Appeals relied on its previous decision in United States v. Lee, 360 F.2d 449 (1966). In that case the court allowed as part of a compensation award the owner's expenses in having a survey made of the land to be taken. But the Lee case involved misrepresentation on the part of the Government as to the amount of land to be taken. Even if correctly decided, therefore, that case presented a situation quite different from the present case, where no such misrepresentation was alleged.

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