Opinion ID: 874343
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The district court erred in failing to address BTA's takings claims, so we remand for further proceedings.

Text: BTA alleges that it was deprived of two pieces of property  the building permit itself and BTA's right to develop the Project pursuant to the permit  resulting in constitutionally impermissible takings under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and Article I, Sections 13 and 14 of the Idaho Constitution. Although BTA asserted its takings claims in its complaint, the district court failed to address the claims in its Decision and Order on Cross Motions for Summary Judgment. The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Article I, Section 13 of the Idaho Constitution guarantees that [n]o person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Article I, Section 14 of the Idaho Constitution provides: Private property may be taken for public use, but not until a just compensation, to be ascertained in the manner prescribed by law, shall be paid therefor. The Just Compensation Clause, sometimes referred to as the Takings Clause, has developed into a complicated and multi-faceted area of constitutional law. Until the United States Supreme Court's watershed decision in Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 43 S.Ct. 158, 67 L.Ed. 322 (1922), it was generally thought that the Takings Clause reached only a direct appropriation of property, or the functional equivalent of a practical ouster of the owner's possession. [2] Lingle v. Chevron U.S.A. Inc., 544 U.S. 528, 537, 125 S.Ct. 2074, 2080, 161 L.Ed.2d 876, 886 (2005) (citing Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003, 1014, 112 S.Ct. 2886, 2892, 120 L.Ed.2d 798, 811 (1992) (internal quotations and brackets omitted; emphasis in original)). After Mahon, neither a physical appropriation nor a public use has ever been a necessary component of a regulatory taking. Tahoe-Sierra Pres. Council, Inc. v. Tahoe Reg'l Planning Agency, 535 U.S. 302, 326, 122 S.Ct. 1465, 1480, 152 L.Ed.2d 517, 542 (2002). The United States Supreme Court has identified two types of regulatory action that constitute categorical or per se takings. First, where government requires an owner to suffer a permanent physical invasion of her property  however minor  it must provide just compensation. Lingle, 544 U.S. at 538, 125 S.Ct. at 2081, 161 L.Ed.2d at 887 (citing Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U.S. 419, 102 S.Ct. 3164, 73 L.Ed.2d 868 (1982)). A second categorical rule applies to regulations that completely deprive an owner of ` all economically beneficial us[e]' of her property. Lingle, 544 U.S. at 538, 125 S.Ct. at 2081, 161 L.Ed.2d at 887 (quoting Lucas, 505 U.S. at 1019, 112 S.Ct. at 2895, 120 L.Ed.2d at 815) (emphasis and bracket in original). If the facts of a regulatory takings case do not fit within these two categories, then the takings claim must be analyzed under the catch-all standard promulgated in Penn. Central Transp. Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104, 124, 98 S.Ct. 2646, 2659, 57 L.Ed.2d 631, 648 (1978). The Penn Central factors that must be considered to determine the compensability of an alleged taking include: (1) the character of the government action, (2) the economic impact of that action on the property owner, and (3) the extent to which the regulation has interfered with distinct investment-backed expectations. Id. In Tahoe-Sierra, the United States Supreme Court held that the Penn Central factors are applicable when an alleged taking is temporary in nature. 535 U.S. at 342, 122 S.Ct. at 1489, 152 L.Ed.2d at 552. In so holding, the Court declined to adopt a per se categorical test for temporary moratoriums on development. Id. The Court noted: A rule that required compensation for every delay in the use of property would render routine government processes prohibitively expensive or encourage hasty decisionmaking. Id., 535 U.S. at 335, 122 S.Ct. at 1485, 152 L.Ed.2d at 548. Government hardly could go on if to some extent values incident to property could not be diminished without paying for every such change in the general law. Lingle, 544 U.S. at 538, 125 S.Ct. at 2081, 161 L.Ed.2d at 887 (quoting Mahon, 260 U.S. at 413, 43 S.Ct. at 159, 67 L.Ed. at 325). Assuming arguendo that BTA had a constitutionally protected property interest in its building permit or in its right to build pursuant to the building permit, whether a taking occurred was a matter not decided by the district court and for that reason, we decline to address the issue. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment in favor of Hogland and the City of Boise on this issue and remand to the district court for its determination of the issue, keeping in mind that there was at most a temporary taking due to the mistaken miscalculation of the permit expiration date. It is difficult to perceive what loss of value there could have been to the permit itself and a substantial question remains as to what temporary taking gives rise to a compensable claim for damages as BTA is asserting here. Because the district court failed to analyze BTA's takings claims or reach any decision on the issue, we remand for further proceedings.