Opinion ID: 200574
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Futility of pursuing state remedies 5

Text: 16 In its decision regarding the property rights of the state and Pascoag, the Rhode Island Supreme Court discussed Pascoag's potential takings claims in dicta: 17 [E]ven if the state's conduct from 1965 to 1975 had been unlawful and amounted to an improper taking of the lake owner's property without paying just compensation, and even if the lake owner's property had not been taken in the constitutional sense until the prescriptive period ended in 1975 — issues that we have no need to decide in this case — the corporation and its predecessors failed to assert any takings claim in a timely manner. Thus, they are barred from asserting them now under any statute of limitations that possibly could apply to such claims.... 18 Pascoag State Decision, 774 A.2d at 838. Pascoag argues that because this language suggests that Pascoag's claim is time-barred, state court remedies are futile. 19 Again, Pascoag fails to carry its burden to show that an exception to the state action requirement applies. Pascoag's futility argument is simply that it is now time-barred from making state law claims. If the futility rule were read this broadly it would swallow the general rule of state remedy exhaustion. Like the other exceptions, the futility exception must consider the landowner's available state remedies at the time of the taking. See Williamson County, 473 U.S. at 194, 105 S.Ct. 3108 ([A]ll that is required [by the Fifth Amendment] is that a reasonable, certain and adequate provision for obtaining compensation exist at the time of the taking.) (quotation omitted). There is no evidence that the state would not have been receptive to Pascoag's claim had it been brought at the time the property was taken (regardless of whether that was in 1965 or 1975 — a determination we address below). Pascoag offers no compelling explanation for not using state procedures earlier, 6 and we find that state court remedies are not futile. 20