Court Opinion

ID: 9653305
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:43:28.146668+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:57.673154
License: Public Domain

PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
Under 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 632, the Secretary of War was authorized to acquire by condemnation the right-of-way here involved and to dispose of it by sale, lease, or otherwise, in accordance with § 1(b) of the Act of July 2, 1940, 54 Stat. 712, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 1171(b).
Section 1(b), supra, provides: “(b) The Secretary of' War is further authorized, with or without advertising, to provide for the operation and maintenance of any plants, buildings, facilities, utilities, and appurtenances thereto constructed pursuant to the authorizations contained in this section and section 5, either .by means of Government personnel or through the agency of selected qualified commercial manufacturers under contracts entered into with them, and, when he deems it necessary in the interest of the national defense, to lease, sell, or otherwise dispose of, any such plants, buildings, facilities, utilities, appurtenances thereto, and land, under such terms and conditions as he may deem advisable, and without regard to the provisions of section 321 of the Act of June 30, 1932 (47 Stat. 412).”
Under these sections, the United States was authorized to acquire the right-of-way and to retain it itself, or to dispose of it by lease, sale, or otherwise, when the Secretary of War deemed such sale or disposition necessary in the interest of the national defense. The power of the United States to acquire property by condemnation and transfer it to others in aid of the national defense cannot be doubted. United States v. Marin, 9 Cir., 136 F.2d 388, and cases there cited; City of Oakland v. United States, 9 Cir., 124 F.2d 959. See, also, Brown v. United States, 263 U.S. 78, 44 S.Ct. 92, 68 L.Ed. 171.
What "would be the effect on the easement if the United States should cease to use the easement itself, or should undertake to dispose of it to others for use other than in the interest of the national defense, is not here presented and need not be decided. It suffices to say that it was error to limit the life of the easement to the period it should be used by the United States and foreclose its right to dispose of the easement to another in the interest of the national defense.
CHANDLER, District Judge, concurs.