Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/101243/jankovich-vs-indiana-toll-road-comm-n
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 08:49:13+00:00

Document:
Petitioners, operators of a municipal airport, brought suit in a state court for injunctive relief and damages against respondent toll road commission which had constructed a toll road whose height at a point from a planned runway petitioners contended exceeded that permitted by the municipal airport zoning ordinance. The State Supreme Court reversed the trial court's award of damages to petitioners, holding that the ordinance purported to authorize an appropriation of property (airspace) without compensation, which was unlawful under the Indiana Constitution and under the Fourteenth Amendment.
1. In holding that the ordinance effected a taking of respondent's property right in the airspace above its land without compensation, the State Supreme Court rested its decision upon independent and adequate state grounds, even though it also relied on similar federal grounds, and this Court is therefore deprived of jurisdiction to review the state court judgment. Pp. 379 U. S. 489 -492.
2. The state court decision is compatible with the Federal Airport Act, which does not defeat this respondent's right under state law to compensation for the taking of airspace. Pp. 379 U. S. 493 -405.
Reported below: 244 Ind. 574,193 N.E.2d 237.
"the ordinance purported to authorize an unlawful and unconstitutional appropriation of property rights without payment of compensation."
244 Ind. 574, 584, 193 N.E.2d 237, 242. Because it appeared that the case involved the validity of airport zoning regulations under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and therefore presented important questions affecting the National Airport Plan not previously considered by this Court, we granted certiorari. 377 U.S. 942.
"'the settled rule that where the judgment of a state court rests upon two grounds, one of which is federal and the other nonfederal in character, our jurisdiction fails if the nonfederal ground is independent of the federal ground and adequate to support the judgment.' Fox Film Corp. v. Miller, 296 U. S. 207 , 296 U. S. 210 ."
Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, 368 U. S. 278 , 368 U. S. 281 . As we have concluded that respondent is correct in its contention that the judgment sought to be reviewed is supported by an independent and adequate state ground, we dismiss the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted.
the Indiana Constitution [ Footnote 1 ] and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States."
244 Ind. at 577, 193 N.E.2d at 238. In resolving that issue, however, the Indiana Supreme Court, quite understandably, did not analyze separately the effect of the two provisions but considered them together. From that fact, petitioners would have us conclude that the state ground of decision -- invalidity of the zoning ordinance under Art. 1, § 21, of the Indiana Constitution -- "is so interwoven with the other as not to be an independent matter. . . ." Enterprise Irrig. District v. Canal Co., 243 U. S. 157 , 243 U. S. 164 (dictum). (Emphasis added.) We cannot agree.
"(1) Whether air space above land is a constitutionally protected property right, and (2) whether, in the instant case, there has been a constitutionally proscribed taking."
244 Ind. at 578, 193 N.E.2d at 239.
"[i]n the light of the above authorities . . . , the reasonable and ordinary use of air space above land is a property right which cannot be taken without the payment of compensation,"
244 Ind. at 581, 193 N.E.2d at 240, flows from a federal, rather than a state, source. Indeed, the organization and language of the opinion indicates that, at the least, state law is an equal ground of decision.
The discussion of the second question -- whether the ordinance effects a proscribed taking, as opposed to a reasonable regulation under the police power -- similarly interlaces Indiana and federal decisions, as well as decisions of other state courts. Again, there is no intimation that the conclusion that the ordinance entails "an unlawful and unconstitutional appropriation of property rights without payment of compensation," 244 Ind. at 584, 193 N.E.2d at 242, is based less forcefully on the Indiana Constitution than on the Fourteenth Amendment.
"leaves the impression that the court probably felt constrained to rule as it did because of [decisions applying the Fourteenth Amendment],"
Minnesota v. National Tea Co., supra, at 309 U. S. 554 -555, or "because it felt under compulsion of federal law as enunciated by this Court so to hold," Missouri ex rel. Southern R. Co. v. Mayfield, 340 U. S. 1 , 340 U. S. 5 , with the result that the state and federal grounds are "so interwoven that we are unable to conclude that the judgment rests upon an independent interpretation of the State law," State Tax Comm'n v. Van Cott, 306 U. S. 511 , 306 U. S. 514 . See also Perkins v. Benguet Mining Co., 342 U. S. 437 , 342 U. S. 443 , 342 U. S. 448 -449; Enterprise Irrig. District v. Canal Co., supra. Under our settled decisions, the state ground in this case must be regarded as an independent and adequate ground of decision, and we so hold.
"the City of Gary has attempted, by the passage of the ordinance under consideration, to take and appropriate to its own use the ordinarily usable air space of property adjacent to the Gary Airport. . . ."
244 Ind. at 582, 193 N.E.2d at 241. (Emphasis added.) As we read the opinion of the Indiana Supreme Court, it certainly does not portent the wholesale invalidation of all airport zoning laws.
"(4) appropriate action, including the adoption of zoning laws, has been or will be taken, to the extent reasonable, to restrict the use of land adjacent to or in the immediate vicinity of the airport to activities and purposes compatible with normal airport operations including landing and take-off of aircraft."
"either by the acquisition and retention of easements or other interests in or rights for the use of land or airspace or by the adoption and enforcement of zoning regulations."
"[t]here is no basis for a contention that federal law removes State law restrictions on the exercise of the zoning power or defeats any State law right to compensation."
"No man's particular services shall be demanded, without just compensation. No man's property shall be taken by law, without just compensation; nor, except in case of the State, without such compensation first assessed and tendered."
"[t]he federal government has recognized the requirement that easements for the glide angle needed for landing and take-off must be acquired by condemnation proceedings and payment of just compensation,"
244 Ind. at 584, 193 N.E.2d at 242, but that conclusion was based on two cases condemning easements over property adjoining federal bases that were decided several years before the recent amendment to the Federal Airport Act, United States v. 48.10 Acres of Land, 144 F.Supp. 258 (D.C.S.D.N.Y.1956); United States v. 4.43 Acres of Land, 137 F.Supp. 567 (D.C.N.D.Tex.1956), not on any assessment of the policy of that Act. These circumstances, of course, bar petitioners from seeking reversal of the judgment below on the basis of their preemption claim, and it is therefore questionable whether petitioners may advance the same argument under the guise of an attack on the adequacy of the state ground of decision. We need not consider this problem further, however, because, as is explained in the text, infra , the preemption claim is insubstantial.
Needless to say, we express no opinion in this case regarding the validity under the United States Constitution of the city's airport zoning ordinance.
MR. JUSTICE STEWART, with whom MR. JUSTICE BLACK joins, dissenting.
Although the opinion of the Supreme Court of Indiana relies on state and federal precedents, I can find nowhere in its opinion any clear indication of whether that court's ultimate conclusion is based upon the Federal Constitution, the Constitution of Indiana, or both. Therefore, I think the posture of this case is identical to that presented in Minnesota v. National Tea Co., 309 U. S. 551 , and that we should, as the Court did there, vacate the judgment of the State Supreme Court and remand the cause for further proceedings.
assures that important federal issues such as have been argued here will reach this Court for adjudication, that state courts will not be the final arbiters of important issues under the federal constitution, and that we will not encroach on the constitutional jurisdiction of the states. This is not a mere technical rule, nor a rule for our convenience. It touches the division of authority between state courts and this Court, and is of equal importance to each. Only by such explicitness can the highest courts of the states and this Court keep within the bounds of their respective jurisdictions."
309 U.S. at 309 U. S. 557 .

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