Cristina Investment Corp. v. United States

40 Fed. Cl. 571, 28 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 21040, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 56, 1998 WL 157060
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedFebruary 25, 1998
DocketNo. 95-128L
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 40 Fed. Cl. 571 (Cristina Investment 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
Cristina Investment Corp. v. United States, 40 Fed. Cl. 571, 28 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 21040, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 56, 1998 WL 157060 (uscfc 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

MEROW, Judge.

Plaintiffs Cristina Investment Corp. and Cris Realms, Inc., claim that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (“Corps”) selection of an alignment for a government levee effectively proscribed the development of their wetland property, and therefore gave rise to a taking of that property under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution entitling them to $2,156,000.00 in just compensation. A different alignment for a private levee which would have enabled development had been proposed by Bayou des Families Development Corp. (“BDF”), which owned similarly situated wetland property. On September 21, 1979, the Corps denied BDF’s permit application reflecting that alignment on the merits. This matter is now before the court on cross-motions for summary judgment on liability.

Defendant argues that plaintiff Cristina’s claim is barred by the six-year statute of limitations governing claims brought before this court. 28 U.S.C. § 2501 (1994). In particular, defendant maintains that all events fixing the potential liability of the government for the alleged taking occurred by September 21, 1979, when the Corps denied BDF’s permit application to construct a levee which would have enabled the development of both BDF’s and plaintiffs’ wetlands. In an unpublished order, this court rejected BDF’s takings claim as barred by 28 U.S.C. § 2501. Bayou des Families Dev. Corp. v. United States, No. 91-1315L (Feb. 23, 1996). The Federal Circuit sustained that result on appeal. Bayou des Families Dev. Corp. v. United States, 130 F.3d 1034 (Fed.Cir.1997). Defendant adds that plaintiff Cris’ takings claim fails because it did not own the subject property at the time of the alleged taking in 1979.

Plaintiffs note that, notwithstanding the 1979 Corps denial, legal challenges to that denial and local political debate left open the possibility that either BDF or the Corps would locate a levee along the alignment which would enable wetland development. Analogizing to the Dickinson stabilization principle which provides that a takings claim arising from a continuing physical process does not accrue until the physical situation has stabilized, United States v. Dickinson, 331 U.S. 745, 749, 67 S.Ct. 1382, 1385, 91 L.Ed. 1789 (1947), plaintiffs argue that their claim did not accrue until the political situation stabilized. Plaintiffs maintain that stabilization was achieved in 1989 when Jefferson Parish Levee District (“the District”) filed expropriation suits against them to acquire property for the right-of-way to construct the levee along the disadvantageous alignment. It was not until that time, according to plaintiffs, that the decision concerning the levee’s location was finally determined, wetland development was foreclosed, and their takings claim accrued. Alternatively, plaintiffs argue that the December 18, 1990 Local Cooperation Agreement (“LCA”) between the Corps and the District, delineating the responsibilities of both parties regarding the construction and maintenance of the levee along the disadvantageous alignment, had this accrual effect.

As explained below, the Dickinson stabilization principle is limited to takings claims involving a continuous physical process, Ariadne Fin. Servs. Pty. Ltd. v. United States, 133 F.3d 874, 878-79 (Fed.Cir.1998); see also Fallini v. United States, 56 F.3d 1378,1381-82 (Fed.Cir.1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1243, 116 S.Ct. 2496, 135 L.Ed.2d 189 (1996), and therefore is not the proper analytical framework to apply to determine when a takings claim challenging a government permit denial accrues. Rather, the proper framework is provided by ripeness doctrine as annunciated in Suitum v. Tahoe Reg’l Planning Agency, [574]*574520 U.S. 725,---, 117 S.Ct. 1659, 1665-67,137 L.Ed.2d 980 (1997), Williamson County Reg'l Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. 172, 105 S.Ct. 3108, 87 L.Ed.2d 126 (1985) and MacDonald, Sommer & Frates v. Yolo County, 477 U.S. 340, 106 S.Ct. 2561, 91 L.Ed.2d 285 (1986), and applied by the Federal Circuit to federal takings claims. Bayou des Families, 130 F.3d at 1037-38; Howard W. Heck and Associates, Inc. v. United States, 134 F.3d 1468, 1470-71 (Fed.Cir.1998). That doctrine provides that a government denial will be considered final, and any federal takings claim arising from that denial will therefore accrue, if the property owner made a proper application which the government denied both on the merits and in such a manner as to reveal that reapplication for a modified plan would be futile. Efforts to secure the reversal of that denial do not operate to deprive such a denial of finality. See Williamson, 473 U.S. at 192-93, 105 S.Ct. at 3119-20. Exhaustion of such potential remedies is not required to ripen a takings claim, and does not prevent the accrual of that claim.

Both the manner and circumstances surrounding the Corps 1979 denial reveal that the denial was final. The Corps denial addressed the merits of BDF’s proposal, rejected the proposal on ecological grounds, and was based upon the unchanging fact that the wetlands at issue here fell within a protected zone of a national park. See Bayou des Families, 130 F.3d at 1040; West Jefferson Levee Dist. v. Coast Quality Constr., 640 So.2d 1258, 1284-88 (La.1994), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1083,115 S.Ct. 736,130 L.Ed.2d 639 (1995). Accordingly, plaintiff Cristina’s takings claim accrued on September 21, 1979, when the Corps denied BDF’s permit application to construct the levee along an alignment which would have enabled Cristina to develop its wetlands. Because Cristina’s claim was filed more than six years after that date, the claim is barred by the statute of limitations. Plaintiff Cris’ takings claim fails because it did not own the subject property at the time of the alleged taking. United States v. Dow, 357 U.S. 17, 22, 78 S.Ct. 1039, 1044-45, 2 L.Ed.2d 1109 (1958); Argent v. United States, 124 F.3d 1277, 1287 (Fed.Cir. 1997). Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is therefore denied. Defendant’s motion for summary judgment is granted.

FACTS

This takings claim, as in Bayou des Families Dev. Corp. v. United States, 130 F.3d 1034, arose from the controversy surrounding the location of a levee in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Beginning in the early 1970s, the Corps had under consideration a number of different alignments for a levee project designed to protect portions of coastal Louisiana from hurricane destruction and flooding from the Mississippi River. In the reaches affecting the property at issue here, there were two alternatives. West Jefferson Levee Disk, 640 So.2d at 1267.

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40 Fed. Cl. 571, 28 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 21040, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 56, 1998 WL 157060, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cristina-investment-corp-v-united-states-uscfc-1998.