Court Opinion

ID: 9648098
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:02:11.72988+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:56.200378
License: Public Domain

RODGERS,
Senior Judge, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
The only issue before this Court is whether the Commonwealth is entitled to summary judgment because the petitioners, Machipon-go and Erickson-Naughton, have failed to produce evidence that the Commonwealth has deprived them of all beneficial use of their land by means that are unduly oppressive.
The petitioners claim that a regulation of the Environmental Quality Board which designated a small portion of their property as unsuitable for surface coal mining entitles them to millions of dollars in compensation based on a royalty on every ton of coal allegedly taken by the regulation.
The thrust of the petitioners’ argument, accepted by the majority, is that the only use of an estate in coal is the right to mine it, and that any regulation, regardless of its merit, that takes away such right to the slightest extent, requires full monetary compensation, because they have been deprived of all beneficial use of their property, citing Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003, 112 S.Ct. 2886, 120 L.Ed.2d 798 (1992).
Until 1987, the only available remedy for a regulation that went ‘too far’ was invalidation of the regulation. First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. Los Angeles County, 482 U.S. 304, 107 S.Ct. 2378, 96 L.Ed.2d 250 (1987). Recently, in Miller & Son Paving Inc. v. Plumstead Township, 552 Pa. 652, 717 A.2d 483 (1998), the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that even though a township zoning ordinance prohibiting the mining of rock was invalid, the property owner was not entitled to money damages for a temporary taking, because other uses clearly existed, and that a holding to the contrary could have a chilling effect on land use planning.
Our Court has acknowledged that for the purpose of deciding taking issues under the federal constitution, the vertical division recognized in Pennsylvania law that coal, surface, and the right to support are three separate estates is without significance. McClimans v. Board of Supervisors of Shenango Township, 107 Pa.Cmwlth. 542, 529 A.2d 562, 569 n. 4 (Pa.Cmwlth.1987) (McClimans I). It is undisputed that the petitioners in this case have other uses for their properties, including the sale of oil and gas rights, the sale of timber, and the sale of land for residential and other uses. The petitioners have therefore failed to adduce any evidence of a taking under federal law. Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104, 98 S.Ct. 2646, 57 L.Ed.2d 631 (1978); Keystone Bituminous Coal Association v. DeBenedictis, 480 U.S. 470, 107 S.Ct. 1232, 94 L.Ed.2d 472 (1987). The petitioners’ reliance on Lucas, supra, is misplaced, because in that case the court found that the property owners had been deprived of all beneficial uses of their beachfront lots.
*31The petitioners also claim a taking under state law. This claim is based on the notion that the Commonwealth must pay for every ounce of coal they are unable to mine, regardless of the merit of the regulation. But in the petitioners’ brief, p. 10, they say:
Prior to the designation of the UFM area, all of the mineable and marketable coal situated in the applicable area was considered permittable, excluding the usual barrier areas required for streams, dams, dwellings, highways, etc. (Emphasis supplied.)
The question therefore arises why the Commonwealth cannot designate a “barrier” area to preserve the quality and quantity of the water in this watershed.
The petitioners rely upon McClimans I, supra, and Board of Supervisors of Shenango Twp. v. McClimans, 142 Pa.Cmwlth. 470, 597 A.2d 738 (Pa.Cmwlth.1991) (McClimans II), to prove a taking under state law. In McClimans I, our Court said that a zoning ordinance’s exclusion of mining on the surface is a compensable taking of the coal estate below if the ordinance conclusively prevents an owner from gaining access to his subsurface property.
However, in Miller, supra, our Pennsylvania Supreme Court characterized this statement as dicta, and held that in order to be a compensable taking, the ordinance must be unduly oppressive and deprive the owner of all beneficial use of its property, which is basically the holding in Lucas.
In Keystone, where the parties had stipulated that enforcement of the Pennsylvania law would require the petitioners to leave approximately 27 million tons of coal in place, in upholding the law, the United States Supreme Court said:
When the coal that must remain beneath the ground is viewed in the context of any reasonable unit of petitioners’ coal mining operations and financially backed expectations, it is plain that the petitioners have not come close to satisfying their burden of proving that they have been denied the economically viable use of that property. The record indicates that only about 75% of petitioners’ underground coal can be profitably mined in any event, and there is no showing that petitioners’ reasonable ‘investment-backed expectations’ have been materially affected by the additional duty to retain the small percentage that must be used to support the structures protected by § 4.
480 U.S. at 497, 107 S.Ct. 1232.
In this case the petitioner, Erickson/Naughton, has adduced evidence that only 27 acres of its total 1350 acres, or 2% of its coal property in Clearfield County have been affected by the Goss Run UFM designation. The petitioner, Maehipongo, has asserted only 157 acres of its 2037 acres, or 8% of its total property has been affected. The petitioners both assert they do not know what purchase price was paid for their land, and have adduced no evidence that their reasonable investment backed expectations have been materially affected.
The petitioners have produced some evidence that the value of their property has been reduced. But mere reduction in value does not demonstrate a taking. Penn Central, supra; Concrete Pipe & Products of California Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust, 508 U.S. 602, 113 S.Ct. 2264, 124 L.Ed.2d 539 (1993).
In the words of Keystone, the petitioners have not come close to adducing evidence that they have been denied the economically viable use of their property and, therefore, have faded to show that their property has been taken by the Commonwealth. In my opinion, the Commonwealth is entitled to summary judgment.