Catellus Development Corp. v. United States

31 Fed. Cl. 399, 1994 U.S. Claims LEXIS 106, 1994 WL 249656
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJune 8, 1994
DocketNo. 91-1313L
StatusPublished
Cited by130 cases

This text of 31 Fed. Cl. 399 (Catellus Development Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Catellus Development Corp. v. United States, 31 Fed. Cl. 399, 1994 U.S. Claims LEXIS 106, 1994 WL 249656 (uscfc 1994).

Opinion

ORDER

LYDON, Senior Judge:

Catellus Development Corporation has sued in this court seeking compensation from the United States for an alleged taking of 1,920 acres of land in the California desert. The government has moved under RCFC 12(b)(1) to dismiss the case, arguing that the action is barred by the Tucker Act’s statute of limitations. Having considered the parties’ submissions and having heard oral argument, the court grants the government’s motion to dismiss.

[400]*400FACTS

Catellus Development Corporation is the parent corporation and acting agent of SF Pacific Properties, Inc. The property which is the subject of this litigation was deeded to SF Pacific Properties, Inc. by Santa Fe Pacific Realty Corporation on December 22, 1989. Santa Fe Pacific Realty Corporation had acquired the property as a result of its merger with Southern Pacific Land Company in 1988. Southern Pacific Land Company itself acquired the property from the United States at some point prior to 1930. Santa Fe Pacific Realty Corporation changed its name to Catellus Development Corporation in 1990. For convenience, the entities which at some point have been the holders of record title to the property shall be collectively referred to as “Catellus.”

Catellus is the owner of three sections of real property in San Bernardino County, California, described on official maps as sections 1, 13, and 25 of Township 6 North, Range 7 East, San Bernardino Base and Meridian. The property’s area is about 1,920 acres (three square miles), and lies adjacent to land owned by the United States located at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twenty-nine Palms, California (hereinafter “Twenty-nine Palms”), in a very remote area in the Mojave Desert. As it appears on the ground, the property is similar to the areas all around it, save for some topographical variations. The property is nonagricul-tural and unimproved. No fences have ever been located on or around the property separating Catellus’ land from the vast acreage of Twenty-nine Palms. The property is so remote that it is accessible only by helicopter or by a combination of off-road driving and hiking. It appears that the first time any representative of Catellus or its corporate predecessors viewed the property was in 1990, during a helicopter overflight with representatives of the Marine Corps.

The only documented use of the property between 1930 and 1989 was pursuant to a condemnation action filed in 1952 whereby the government, under a five-year lease, acquired the right to use the property in issue, as well as other properties, “for military and naval purposes as an artillery and anti-aircraft training area.” The lease began on August 21, 1952 and was to end on June 30, 1953, but was extendible for yearly periods thereafter until June 30, 1958 at the election of the government. The record suggests the government continued to use the area after June 30, 1958, and when the Marine Corps installation was subsequently mapped the cartographers, noting the Corps’ use of the land, erroneously included the six 640-acre sections as part of the installation proper.

On March 15, 1989, United States Oil and Mineral Corporation (which at no point has been a party in this case) inquired about the ownership of certain mineral interests in a section of land near the Lavic Lake Live Fire Training Area (“Lavic Lake”) of the Twenty-nine Palms installation. There is no evidence that this inquiry involved plaintiffs lands. It appears that the land inquired about belonged to the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior (BLM). On April 21, 1989, the Commanding General of Twenty-nine Palms noted that it had come to his attention that an area measuring 3,840 acres (six 640-acre sections) had been operationally within Lavic Lake, and was likely to be contaminated with dud ordnance. Catel-lus owns three of these 640-acre sections; two of the others are owned by BLM and the sixth is owned by the State Lands Commission of California. As was the custom in the early days of railroading, the sections were arranged in a “checkerboard” fashion. The six sections, which apparently constituted a “buffer zone,” ran north to south as follows: section 24 (BLM); section 25 (Catellus); section 36 (State of California); section 1 (Catel-lus); section 12 (BLM); and section 13 (Ca-tellus). There is an indication in the material before the court that there is at least one active mine in operation on BLM’s section 12 which abuts Catellus’ section 13 on Catellus’ northern boundary line. There were also other mining claims on the BLM section prior to 1989. Any bombardment that took place appears not to have precluded use of the property for this purpose.

The reason the Marine Corps felt that Catellus’ property might be contaminated with dud ordnance is because it made mistakes in preparing maps of the area in which [401]*401Catellus’ property adjoins Lavic Lake. The Corps had erroneously included these parcels within the boundaries of the Lavic Lake live air and ground ordnance training area. Immediately after learning of the error, the Marine Corps notified government agencies of the change of boundaries, contacted the landowners, and began to determine what it should do about the possibility of unexploded dud ordnance.

By a letter dated August 24,1989, Lt. Col. James Taylor wrote to Catellus stating that the Corps had mistakenly believed that Twenty-nine Palms included three sections of land that belonged to Catellus. Presumably, similar letters were sent to BLM and the State of California. The letter advised that “[although the military now conducts no activities on this land, it was for years part of a live fire training area. For that reason, it is a virtual certainty that some unexploded ordnance is present there, above and below the surface.” The Corps asked Catellus to limit its entry onto these lands because of the continuing danger presented by the ordnance. However, no evidence in the record demonstrates that there is indeed unexploded dud ordnance on Catellus’ property, either above or below the surface. It appears that neither Catellus nor the Corps has taken steps to determine conclusively how extensively the land has been contaminated, or whether it has been contaminated at all. Taylor’s “virtual certainty” statement regarding the presence of ordnance on the property can be better appreciated if considered in the context of a letter written by the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer at Twenty-nine Palms.

This letter, dated November 20, 1989, was sent to the manager of the Marine Corps’ Natural Resources, Environmental Affairs division to describe the cost estimate and procedures for a cleanup of dud ordnance. Describing the barriers to full excavation of the site, the disposal officer noted that:

This particular area is located in what would be considered the buffer zone of the Combat Center.1 Helicopter overflight indicates ordnance contamination of the area. Virtually every type of conventional ordnance could be encountered. Accuracy to even estimate the amount of possible dud ordnance is impossible to give. [The Combat Center] has been heavily utilized for ground, and air ordnance since the early 50’s.2

Here, the subject property is described as being part of a “buffer zone” between the live fire training area at Lavic Lake and property not controlled by the government that lay outside Twenty-nine Palms.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
31 Fed. Cl. 399, 1994 U.S. Claims LEXIS 106, 1994 WL 249656, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/catellus-development-corp-v-united-states-uscfc-1994.