Opinion ID: 2449953
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Halvorsons' takings claim

Text: The Halvorsons also advance a takings claim. They argue that the right to use their land has been taken for public use without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. U.S. Const. amends. V, XIV. In addressing this question below, the district court concluded that the Halvorsons' takings claims fail because the Highway District's actions do not exceed its statutory authority or fall outside the scope of the right of way of Camps Canyon Road. However, even where the Highway District acted appropriately within the various statutes, this reasoning does not necessarily indicate that the application of those statutes might not be an unconstitutional taking. The district court did not address those possibilities. This Court has stated that [i]f a landowner believes the acquisition of a roadway pursuant to I.C. § 40-202 results in a taking, the landowner has four years from the accrual of the cause of action to bring a claim of inverse condemnation. Total Success Invs., 145 Idaho at 369, 179 P.3d at 332. The record discloses that Camps Canyon Road has been maintained by the public at least since 1974 and that it has been open to the public since the 1930s. As discussed above, the Halvorsons offer no argument that Camps Canyon Road has not been a public road since at least 1979. Using the 1979 date as a baseline, the Halvorsons' predecessors in interest would then have had four years to bring an action for a taking or an inverse condemnation action. I.C. § 5-224; BHA Invs., Inc. v. City of Boise, 141 Idaho 168, 176 n. 2, 108 P.3d 315, 323 n. 2 (2004) (a takings claim may be brought directly under the Fourteenth Amendment). Any ability to advance a claim for a taking expired in 1983. We observe that the Halvorsons purchased their property in 1996. One who purchases land expressly subject to an easement, or with notice, actual or constructive, that it is burdened with an existing easement, takes the land subject to the easement. Akers v. D.L. White Const., Inc., 142 Idaho 293, 301, 127 P.3d 196, 204 (2005) (quoting Checketts v. Thompson, 65 Idaho 715, 721, 152 P.2d 585, 587 (1944)). Because the Highway District established the public highway as of 1979 at the very latest, when the Halvorsons purchased the property, they did so subject to the full extent of the Camps Canyon Road easement. We therefore find that the district court did not err in finding that Camps Canyon Road is a public highway. We further find that the Halvorsons' takings arguments, due process arguments, and arguments regarding the district court's ability to determine the presence of a public highway are without merit.