Opinion ID: 2105836
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Increased Risks and Landfill-Operation Costs

Text: TCLC argues that the civilian overflights and general airport operations exposed it to increased risks and costs associated with operating the landfill, and that this is sufficient to establish interference with TCLC's use and enjoyment of the property. But to establish a taking claim, TCLC must show that the civilian overflights, separate and apart from the burdens already imposed on its property by ongoing military flights and the accompanying military-avigation easement, substantially increased risks and costs that interfered with the property's use as a landfill. TCLC relies on two federal cases Avery v. United States, 165 Ct.Cl. 357, 330 F.2d 640 (1964) and Davis v. United States, 155 Ct.Cl. 418, 295 F.2d 931 (1961)that hold that a subsequent taking occurred because additional military overflights, above and beyond those covered by a pre-existing easement, began. But both cases are distinguishable. In Davis, the court held that the property owner established a subsequent taking because the introduction of new, dramatically noisier military aircraft rendered the residence uninhabitable and property improvements substantially worthless. Davis, 295 F.2d at 932-33. Likewise, in Avery, the court relied on the addition of larger, heavier, noisier military aircraft that affected the property's use and enjoyment to conclude that a subsequent taking occurred. Avery, 330 F.2d at 642. Here, however, TCLC presented no evidence that the addition of civilian overflights caused overflight effects that interfered with the use of TCLC's property as a landfill. Although TCLC's appraisal expert did testify that there are risks associated with the landfill's close proximity to Bergstrom and that the flights are low and frequent and that adds ... potential hazards to the property, this conclusory opinion is contrary to the expert's concession that he did not consider the effects of actual flights over the property. Moreover, the testimony fails to connect the alleged risks with overflight effects and does not establish that those risks interfered with the property's use as a landfill. TCLC's only argument is that the additional civilian overflights exceeded the scope of the pre-existing military-avigation easement. But this is not enough to establish that overflights, above and beyond the property's pre-existing burdens, substantially interfered with the property's use and enjoyment as a landfill. TCLC also failed to quantify these risks and hazards or specifically describe how they interfered with TCLC's use and enjoyment of the property. Such nonspecific allegations are not enough to establish a taking, because a property owner must demonstrate that the interference with the property's use and enjoyment is substantial. See Brown, 73 F.3d at 1102. Although TCLC explains that operating restrictions require it to prevent smoke, dust, and birds from interfering with overflights, and that these restrictions impinge on TCLC's use and enjoyment of the property, the evidence did not demonstrate that civilian overflights would actually cause TCLC to incur additional costs or that those additional costs would be substantial. The only evidence of increased costs TCLC presented related to bird-dispersal programs, but these requirements were a condition for TCLC's landfill permit before the civilian overflights began. Thus, any expenses TCLC incurred were not attributable to civilian overflights, but to pre-existing burdens imposed on its property by ongoing military overflights and the accompanying military-avigation easement. We conclude that TCLC failed to present any evidence that civilian overflights increased the risks and costs of operating the landfill, or that these risks and costs substantially interfered with TCLC's use and enjoyment of the property.