Opinion ID: 2462808
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Heading Rank: 3

Heading: is direct overflight required?

Text: Not every destruction or injury to property by governmental action constitutes a taking in the constitutional sense. PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins, supra . For example, in Tennessee, one of our earlier cases described a constitutional taking sufficient to support an action for inverse condemnation as the obtaining of property for public use where the property is either actually appropriated or the common or necessary use of the property is rendered impossible or seriously interrupted. Barron v. City of Memphis, 113 Tenn. 89, 80 S.W. 832, 833 (1904). Several years later, this Court held that a diminution in the value of property peculiarly affected and directly invaded, which is not shared by the public at large, is a taking. Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Moriarity, 135 Tenn. 446, 186 S.W. 1053 (1916). Each of these early Tennessee cases involved either continuing physical occupation of property or a total destruction of property rights. [1] More recently, in the context of determining whether airport flights constitute interference sufficient to establish a taking, this Court held that a taking occurs, and an action for inverse condemnation will lie, when an entity with the power of eminent domain substantially deprives an owner of the beneficial use and enjoyment of property. The interference must be continuing and substantial. Whether an interference is substantial enough to constitute a taking ordinarily will be a question for the jury to determine. Interference with the use and enjoyment of property sufficient to constitute a jury issue on taking was stated in this case upon plaintiffs' allegations that their property value had been diminished by half as a result of airplanes flying directly over their property at altitudes from 125 to 300 feet. Johnson, 435 S.W.2d at 476, 480. In this appeal, the Jacksons argue that under the Johnson standard, they have stated a cause of action for inverse condemnation. The Airport Authority also relies upon Johnson to support its theory that direct physical invasion of property is required to establish a compensable taking and a prima facie cause of action for inverse condemnation. It argues, therefore, that dismissal of the Jacksons' complaint was warranted because there is no allegation of a physical invasion of property, which in this case would require an allegation of direct overflight. The Airport Authority also relies upon Ledbetter v. Beach, 220 Tenn. 623, 421 S.W.2d 814 (Tenn. 1967), in which this Court concluded that plaintiffs had failed to allege a compensable taking because the plaintiffs did not allege a physical taking of any of their land. Id., 220 Tenn. at 630, 421 S.W.2d at 817. Reliance by the Airport Authority on both Johnson and Ledbetter is misplaced. Ledbetter is distinguishable from the present case, in that the plaintiffs in Ledbetter failed to allege that the construction of the highway specially damaged their property in a manner that was not shared generally by other landowners adjacent to the public highway. The only allegation was that the building of the highway itself in proximity to their property was a taking. In Johnson , the alleged interference with the plaintiff's beneficial use and enjoyment of property resulted from direct overflights. It, therefore, was not necessary for this Court to decide whether an allegation of direct overflight is required to state a cause of action for inverse condemnation in an airport case. We relied upon two United States Supreme Court decisions in Johnson . In the first case, United States v. Causby, 328 U.S. 256, 66 S.Ct. 1062, 90 L.Ed. 1206 (1946), which has been characterized as a landmark decision, [2] the Supreme Court held that frequent and regular flights of military aircraft which directly and immediately interfere with the enjoyment and use of land constitute a taking within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Likewise, in the second case, Griggs v. County of Allegheny, 369 U.S. 84, 82 S.Ct. 531, 7 L.Ed.2d 585 (1962), the Court held that regular and continuous daily flights at altitudes ranging from 30 to 300 feet over plaintiff's residence, which interfered with plaintiff's household members' sleep, caused windows to rattle and plaster to fall, and interfered with plaintiff's household members' health, constituted a taking in the constitutional sense. In both of those cases, the plaintiffs had alleged some direct overflight. Consequently, in neither case, did the U.S. Supreme Court directly address the issue of whether a plaintiff states a cause of action for inverse condemnation in the absence of an allegation of direct overflight. We, however, also extensively relied upon the leading case of Thornburg v. Port of Portland, 233 Or. 178, 376 P.2d 100 (1962). There, the Oregon Supreme Court held that systematic flights which pass close to private land, but not directly overhead, constitute a taking. In so concluding, the Oregon Court acknowledged, but rejected, a line of federal cases holding that while repeated flights at low levels directly over private land may amount to a taking for which compensation must be paid, repeated flights nearby but not directly overhead must be endured as mere `damages' which, for various reasons, may not be compensable. Id., 376 P.2d at 103 (citations omitted). The Oregon court also specifically discussed Batten v. United States, 306 F.2d 580 (10th Cir.1962), cert. denied, 371 U.S. 955, 83 S.Ct. 506, 9 L.Ed.2d 502 (1963), and rejected the physical invasion theory adopted by the Batten majority and, instead, embraced the view of the dissent, which concluded that a physical invasion is not required to constitute a taking. In so holding, the Oregon court adopted what it characterized as the better reasoned rule stating: If we accept, as we must upon established principles of the law of servitudes, the validity of the propositions that a noise can be a nuisance; that a nuisance can give rise to an easement; and that a noise coming straight down from above one's land can ripen into a taking if it is persistent enough and aggravated enough, then logically the same kind and degree of interference with the use and enjoyment of one's land can also be a taking even though the noise vector may come from some direction other than the perpendicular. Thornburg, 376 P.2d at 106 (emphasis added). Our reliance upon the reasoning of the Oregon Supreme Court, and our rejection of the defendant's contention that there must be direct physical invasion of the land, leads to the conclusion that the holding of Johnson is not limited to cases of direct overflight. Moreover, even if our reliance had been less explicit, modern concepts of property ownership, inverse condemnation jurisprudence, and simple logic support the view that direct overflight is not required. Obviously, continuous noise, pollutants, and vibration from planes flying nearby can interfere with a property owner's beneficial use and enjoyment just as surely as noise, pollutants, and vibration from planes flying directly overhead. Of course, the extent of the interference is relevant to determine whether an actual taking has occurred, but there is simply nothing logical about denying or allowing recovery to a landowner solely on the basis of whether the wing tip of the aircraft passes through some fraction of an inch of the airspace directly above the plaintiff's land. See Long v. City of Charlotte, 306 N.C. 187, 293 S.E.2d 101, 109 (1982). Martin v. Port of Seattle, 64 Wash.2d 309, 391 P.2d 540, 545 (1964), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 989, 85 S.Ct. 701, 13 L.Ed.2d 610 (1965). Accordingly, we adopt the view expressed in many jurisdictions that an allegation of direct overflight is not required to establish a prima facie cause of action for inverse condemnation. See Alevizos v. Metropolitan Airports Commission of Minneapolis and St. Paul, 298 Minn. 471, 216 N.W.2d 651 (1974); Long, supra ; Henthorn v. Oklahoma City, 453 P.2d 1013 (Okla. 1969); Thornburg, supra ; Martin, supra ; Aaron v. City of Los Angeles, 40 Cal. App.3d 471, 115 Cal. Rptr. 162 (1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1122, 95 S.Ct. 806, 42 L.Ed.2d 822 (1975); City of Philadelphia v. Keyser, 45 Pa. Cmwlth. 271, 407 A.2d 55 (1979); [3] see also Sundell v. Town of New London, 119 N.H. 839, 409 A.2d 1315 (1979) (criticizing the holding of Ferguson v. City of Keene, 108 N.H. 409, 238 A.2d 1 (1968) that a direct physical invasion by direct overflight is required); But see Louisville and Jefferson County Air Bd. v. Porter, 397 S.W.2d 146 (Ky. 1965).