Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/364/40
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 16:16:32+00:00

Document:
Claiming valid liens on the hulls and manufacturing materials at the time they were transferred by Rice to the United States, petitioners asserted that the Government's action destroyed their liens by making them unenforceable and that this constituted a taking of their property without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment. 1 The Court of Claims, relying on United States v. Ansonia Brass & Copper Co., 218 U.S. 452, 31 S.Ct. 49, 54 L.Ed. 1107, held that petitioners never acquired valid liens on the hulls or the materials transferred to the Government and that therefore there had been no taking of any property owned by them. Ct.Cl., 169 F.Supp. 259. We granted certiorari. 361 U.S. 812, 80 S.Ct. 86, 4 L.Ed.2d 60.
We hold that there was a taking of these liens for which just compensation is due under the Fifth Amendment. It is true that not every destruction or injury to property by governmental action has been held to be a 'taking' in the constitutional sense. Omnia Commercial Co. v. United States, 261 U.S. 502, 508510, 43 S.Ct. 437, 438, 67 L.Ed. 773. This case and many others reveal the difficulty of trying to draw the line between what destructions of property by lawful governmental actions are compensable 'takings' and what destructions are 'consequential' and therefore not compensable. See, e.g., United States v. Central Eureka Mining Co., 357 U.S. 155, 78 S.Ct. 1097, 2 L.Ed.2d 1228; United States v. Causby, 328 U.S. 256, 66 S.Ct. 1062, 90 L.Ed. 1206; United States v. General Motors Corp., 323 U.S. 373, 65 S.Ct. 357, 89 L.Ed. 311; United States v. Sponenbarger, 308 U.S. 256, 60 S.Ct. 225, 84 L.Ed. 230; Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 43 S.Ct. 158, 67 L.Ed. 322; Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Mottley, 219 U.S. 467, 31 S.Ct. 265, 55 L.Ed. 297; Legal Tender Cases, 12 Wall. 457, 551, 20 L.Ed. 287.
As the Court concedes, not every governmental act which ultimately destroys property rights constitutes a compensable taking of those rights. We are not here dealing with a situation in which the United States has condemned the full fee interest in property, thus purporting to extinguish all claims therein. In such a case, it may well be that lienholders are entitled to compensation for the value of their interests. See Thibodo v. United States, 10 Cir., 187 F.2d 249; cf. United States v. General Motors Corp., 323 U.S. 373, 377378, 65 S.Ct. 357, 359, 89 L.Ed. 311. In this instance, however, the Government has not exercised its power of eminent domain with the intent and purpose of extinguishing petitioners' liens; indeed it has not exercised its power of eminent domain at all. All it has done is to exercise its undoubted power to contract and to acquire title to the property, the consequent effect of which is to render the liens unenforceable because of the independent principle of sovereign immunity. The very nature of the doctrine of sovereign immunity precludes regarding its interposition as a Fifth Amendment 'taking.' It seems to me that a Court which, having established this immunity, then declares that the Government must pay for exercising it, is effectively negativing it.
Richard P. CHRISTY, et al., petitioners, v. Manuel LUJAN, Jr., Secretary of the Interior and United States Department of the Interior.

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