Court Opinion

ID: 9485977
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:35:01.45717+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:28.449653
License: Public Domain

LOURIE, Circuit Judge,
concurring-in-part and dissenting-in-part.
I concur in the majority opinion and its conclusions except that I believe that the government’s activities with respect to the warehouse did not constitute a Fifth Amendment “taking” requiring compensation.
The warehouse was a temporary building, constructed on government property, required by contract to be removed at the completion of the intended work. The government’s activities in breaking into the *1584warehouse and turning control of it over to the joint venture arose from a dispute between SKI, a subcontractor, and the JV, its prime contractor, because of which SKI denied the JV access to the warehouse. After this action, SKI was still allowed access to the warehouse. When the Navy and the contractor told SKI to remove the warehouse and restore the site to its previous condition, as required by contract, SKI twice refused. The warehouse was then dismantled at the behest of the contractor.
I do not believe these circumstances constituted a “taking” of SKI’s property. SKI and its contractor were bound by terms of a contract, as were the Navy and the contractor. It was the contract that governed SKI’s use of the warehouse. SKI’s recourse should have been an action for breach of contract, if anything. Pursuant to the terms of the contract, SKI could not reasonably have expected to maintain the warehouse after completion of the contract. All it had was a future right to the structural materials when the warehouse was dismantled, which right SKI abandoned when it refused to remove the warehouse, as the trial court held. Thus, there was no taking.
I would affirm.