Also known as: eminent domain
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The sovereign power to acquire private property for public use upon payment of just compensation. The power reaches both fee interests and lesser estates such as servitudes, extinguishing or modifying them only to the extent the public use is inconsistent with their continuation.
Dolores Diaz owns land subject to an easement allowing Dixon Foods to run rail spurs across it. The city condemns the servient parcel in fee to build a public plaza. The easement terminates only where the plaza layout physically prevents continued rail use.
Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad holds a strip of land the city needs for a widened public street. The city initiates eminent domain proceedings and pays compensation measured by the value of the interest taken.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Youngstown Sheet & Tube operates steel mills the President orders seized to avert a strike. The Supreme Court holds that the executive lacks authority to exercise eminent domain without congressional authorization.
Pennsylvania Coal owns subsurface rights the state statute effectively prevents from being mined. The Court treats the regulation as an exercise of eminent domain requiring compensation when it destroys the economic value of the property interest.
Agins owns land rezoned for low-density residential use. The city defends the ordinance as a valid exercise of police power rather than an eminent domain taking because the owners retain economically viable uses.
Tahoe-Sierra landowners challenge a multi-year development moratorium imposed while a regional plan is prepared. The Court holds the temporary restriction does not constitute a categorical taking under eminent domain principles.
No. Condemnation modifies or terminates a servitude only to the extent the new public use is inconsistent with its continuation. If the public project can reasonably coexist with the easement, the servitude survives in modified form.
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No. When the servient estate is condemned, the servitude ends only where the permitted public use conflicts with it. Intent to target the servitude itself matters only when the government condemns the benefit of the servitude.
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The easement holder is entitled to compensation measured by the value of the interest lost to the extent the taking extinguishes or modifies the servitude.
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No. An exaction requiring conveyance of an easement must satisfy the essential nexus test. Otherwise the condition constitutes an uncompensated exercise of eminent domain.
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…now must consider whether the interference with appellants’ property is of such a magnitude that “there must be an exercise of eminent domain and compensation to sustain [it].” Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon , 260 U. S., at 413. That inquiry may be narrowed to the question of the severity of the impact of the law on…