Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/369/84
Timestamp: 2013-12-10 14:58:10
Document Index: 16336761

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1101', '§ 1102', '§ 1103', '§ 1105', '§ 1108', '§ 1301', '§ 1109', '§ 1112', '§ 1112', '§ 1112', '§ 1110', '§ 1108', '§ 1102', '§ 1508', '§ 1304', '§ 1301', '§ 60', '§ 1303', '§ 1101']

Thomas N. GRIGGS, Petitioner, v. COUNTY OF ALLEGHENY, PENNSYLVANIA. | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute
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369 U.S. 84 (82 S.Ct. 531, 7 L.Ed.2d 585)
Thomas N. GRIGGS, Petitioner, v. COUNTY OF ALLEGHENY, PENNSYLVANIA.
[HTML] See 369 U.S. 857, 82 S.Ct. 931.
Respondent owns and maintains the Greater Pittsburgh Airport on land which it purchased to provide airport and air-transport facilities. The airport was designed for public use in conformity with the rules and regulations of the Civil Aeronautics Administration within the scope of the National Airport Plan provided for in 49 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., 49 U.S.C.A. § 1101 et seq. By this Act the federal Administrator is authorized and directed to prepare and continually revise a 'national plan for the development of public airports.' § 1102(a). For this purpose he is authorized to make grants to 'sponsors' for airport development. §§ 1103, 1104. Provision is made for apportionment of grants for this purpose among the States. § 1105. The applications for projects must follow the standards prescribed by the Administrator. § 1108.
'Regular and almost continuous daily flights, often several minutes apart, have been made by a number of airlines directly over and very, very close to plaintiff's residence. During these flights it was often impossible for people in the house to converse or to talk on the telephone. The plaintiff and the members of his household (depending on the flight which in turn sometimes depended on the wind) were frequently unable to sleep even with ear plugs and sleeping pills; they would frequently be awakened by the flight and the noise of the planes; the windows of their home would frequently rattle and at times plaster fell down from the walls and ceilings; their health was affected and impaired, and they sometimes were compelled to sleep elsewhere. Moreover, their house was so close to the runways or path of glide that as the spokesman for the members of the Airlines Pilot Association admitted 'If we had engine failure we would have no course but to plow into your house." 402 Pa. 411, 422, 168 A.2d 123, 128129.
We start with United States v. Causby, supra, which held that the United States by low flights of its military planes over a chicken farm made the property unusable for that purpose and that therefore there had been a 'taking', in the constitutional sense, of an air easement for which compensation must be made. At the time of the Causby case, Congress had placed the navigable airspace in the public domain, defining it as 'airspace above the minimum safe altitudes of flight prescribed' by the C.A.A. 44 Stat. 574. We held that the path of the glide or flight for landing or taking off was not the downward reach of the 'navigable airspace.' 328 U.S. at 264, 66 S.Ct. 1062. Following the decision in the Causby case, Congress redefined 'navigable airspace' to mean 'airspace above the minimum altitudes of flight prescribed by regulations issued under this chapter, and shall include airspace needed to insure safety in take-off and landing of aircraft.' 72 Stat. 739, 49 U.S.C. 1301(24), 49 U.S.C.A. § 1301(24). By the present regulations
the 'minimum safe altitudes' within the meaning of the statute are defined, so far as relevant here, as heights of 500 feet or 1,000 feet, '(e)xcept where necessary for takeoff or landing.' But as we said in the Causby case, the use of land presupposes the use of some of the airspace above it. 328 U.S. at 264, 66 S.Ct. 1062. Otherwise no home could be built, no tree planted, no fence constructed, no chimney erected. An invasion of the 'superadjacent airspace' will often 'affect the use of the surface of the land itself.' 328 U.S. at 265, 66 S.Ct. at 1068.
It is argued that though there was a 'taking,' someone other than respondent was the takerthe airlines or the C.A.A. acting as an authorized representative of the United States. We think, however, that respondent, which was the promoter, owner, and lessor
of the airport, was in these circumstances the one who took the air easement in the constitutional sense. Respondent decided, subject to the approval of the C.A.A., where the airport would be built, what runways it would need, their direction and length, and what land and navigation easements would be needed. The Federal Government takes nothing; it is the local authority which decides to build an airport vel non, and where it is to be located. We see no difference between its responsibility for the air easements necessary for operation of the airport and its responsibility for the land on which the runways were built. Nor did the Congress when it designed the legislation for a National Airport Plan. For, as we have already noted, Congress provided in 49 U.S.C. 1109, 49 U.S.C.A. § 1109, for the payment to the owners of airports, whose plans were approved by the Administrator, of a share of 'the allowable project costs' including the 'costs of acquiring land or interests therein or easements through or other interests in air space.' § 1112(a)(2). A county that designed and constructed a bridge would not have a usable facility unless it had at least an easement over the land necessry for the approaches to the bridge. Why should one who designs, constructs, and uses an airport be in a more favorable position so far as the Fourteenth Amendment is concerned? That the instant 'taking' was 'for public use' is not debatable. For respondent agreed with the C.A.A. that it would operate the airport 'for the use and benefit of the public,' that it would operate it 'on fair and reasonable terms and without unjust discrimination,' and that it would not allow any carrier to acquire 'any exclusive right' to its use.
the Court held that by flying its military aircraft frequently on low landing and takeoff flights over Causby's chicken farm the United States had so disturbed the peace of the occupants and so frightened the chickens that it had 'taken' a flight easement from Causby for which it was required to pay 'just compensation' under the Fifth Amendment. Today the Court holds that similar low landing and take-off flights, making petitioner Griggs' property 'undesirable and unbearable for * * * residential use,' constitute a 'taking' of airspace over Griggs' propertynot, however, by the owner and operator of the planes as in Causby, but by Allegheny County, the owner and operator of the Greater Pittsburgh Airport to and from which the planes fly. Although I dissented in Causby because I did not believe that the individual aircraft flights 'took' property in the constitutional sense merely by going over it and because I believed that the complexities of adjusting atmospheric property rights to the air age could best be handled by Congress, I agree with the Court that the noise, vibrations and fear caused by constant and extremely low overflights in this case have so interfered with the use and enjoyment of petitioner's property as to amount to a 'taking' of it under the Causby holding. I cannot agree, however, that it was the County of Allegheny that did the 'taking.' I think that the United States, not the Greater Pittsburgh Airport, has 'taken' the airspace over Griggs' property necessary for flight.
Congress has over the years adopted a comprehensive plan for national and international air commerce, regulating in minute detail virtually every aspect of air transitfrom construction and planning of ground facilities to safety and methods of flight operations.
As part of this overall scheme of development, Congress in 1938 declared that the United States has 'complete and exclusive national sovereignty in the air space above the United States'
and that every citizen has 'a public right of freedom of transit in air commerce through the navigable air space of the United States.'
Although in Causby the Court held that under the then existing laws and regulations the airspace used in landing and take-off was not part of the 'navigable airspace' as to which all have a right of free transit, Congress has since, in 1958, enacted a new law, as part of a regulatory scheme even more comprehensive than those before it, making it clear that the 'airspace needed to insure safety in take-off and landing of aircraft' is 'navigable airspace.'
Thus Congress has not only appropriated the airspace necessary for planes to fly at high altitudes throughout the country but has also provided the low altitude airspace essential for those same planes to approach and take off from airports. These airspaces are so much under the control of the Federal Government that every take-off from and every landing at airports such as the Greater Pittsburgh Airport is made under the direct signal and supervisory control of some federal agent.
In reaching its conclusion, however, the Court emphasizes the fact that highway bridges require approaches. Of course they do. But if the United States Highway Department purchases the approaches to a bridge, the bridge owner need not. The same is true where Congress has, as here, appropriated the airspace necessary to approach the Pittsburgh airport as well as all the other airports in the country. Despite this, however, the Court somehow finds a congressional intent to shift the burden of acquiring flight airspace to the local communities in 49 U.S.C. 1112, 49 U.S.C.A. § 1112, which authorizes reimbursement to local communities for 'necessary' acquisitions of 'easements through or other interests in air space.' But this is no different from the bridge-approach argument. Merely because local communities might eventually be reimbursed for the acquisition of necessary easements does not mean that local communities must acquire easements that the United States has already acquired. And where Congress has already declared airspace free to alla fact not denied by the Courtpretty clearly it need not again be acquired by an airport. The 'necessary' easements for which Congress authorized reimbursement in § 1112 were those 'easements through or other interests in air space' necessary for the clearing and protecting of 'aerial approaches' from physical 'airport hazards'
a duty explicitly placed on the local communities by the statute (§ 1110) and by their contract with the Government. There is no such duty on the local community to acquire flight airspace. Having taken the airspace over Griggs' private property for a public use, it is the United States which owes just compensation.
60 Stat. 174176, as amended, 49 U.S.C. 1108, 1110, 49 U.S.C.A. §§ 1108, 1110. The duties of the Civil Aeronautics Administrator have since been transferred to the Federal Aviation Agency Administrator. 72 Stat. 806807.
The Federal Aviation Agency Administrator is directed to prepare and maintain a 'national plan for the development of public airports in the United States' taking 'into account the needs of both air commerce and private flying, the probable technological developments in the science of aeronautics, (and) the probable growth and requirements of civil aeronautics.' 49 U.S.C. 1102, 49 U.S.C.A. § 1102. The detailed features of the federal regulatory and development scheme are found in 49 U.S.C. cc. 14 (Federal-aid for Public Airport Development), 15 (International Aviation Facilities) and 20 (Federal Aviation Program).
52 Stat. 1028, 49 U.S.C. 1508, 49 U.S.C.A. § 1508.
52 Stat. 980, 49 U.S.C. 1304, 49 U.S.C.A. § 1304.
Section 101(24) of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 provides: "Navigable airspace' means airspace above the minimum altitudes of flight prescribed by regulations issued under this Act, and shall include airspace needed to insure safety in take-off and landing of aircraft.' 72 Stat. 739, 49 U.S.C. 1301(24), 49 U.S.C.A. § 1301(24).
14 CFR § 60.18. The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency is directed to control 'the use of the navigable airspace of the United States.' 49 U.S.C. 1303(c), 49 U.S.C.A. § 1303(c).
The term 'airport hazard' means 'any structure or object of natural growth * * * or any use of land * * * which obstructs the air space * * * or is otherwise hazardous to * * * landing or taking off of aircraft.' 49 U.S.C. 1101(a)(4), 49 U.S.C.A. § 1101(a)(4).