Indian Cave Enterprises, Inc. v. United States

5 Cl. Ct. 461, 1984 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1377
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJune 29, 1984
DocketNo. 665-81L
StatusPublished

This text of 5 Cl. Ct. 461 (Indian Cave Enterprises, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indian Cave Enterprises, Inc. v. United States, 5 Cl. Ct. 461, 1984 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1377 (cc 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

WIESE, Judge:

Plaintiffs, Indian Cave Enterprises, Inc. (“Indian Cave”) and John J. Scoblick, Jr. (“Scoblick”) are the successive owners-in-fee of the remaining portion of a certain tract of land, part of whose original acreage had been acquired by the United States through formal condemnation proceedings. The remaining portion of this condemned property — that not taken by the United States — was acquired by plaintiffs several years later. In their complaint, plaintiffs allege that the Declaration of Taking under which the Government’s condemnation was carried out had misdescribed the boundaries of the property being condemned, in consequence of which the Government mistakingly entered upon, and has ever since continued to occupy, a portion of the adjacent land (the ownership of which plaintiffs later acquired) without payment of compensation. It is also claimed that land which the United States has been leasing from a third party for use as an access road to the condemnation site is, in actuality, property of which plaintiffs were and are the true owners. Plaintiffs seek compensation for each of these separate but related inverse condemnations.

The United States has moved for summary judgment contending that, as to the principal taking being alleged, plaintiffs’ suit is time-barred, and, as to the claim for the use of the road, plaintiffs have no standing for lack of ownership. Plaintiffs oppose and seek summary judgment in their favor. The court, having considered the briefs and oral arguments of counsel, concludes that the Government is entitled to judgment in its favor.

Facts

On June 9, 1951, the United States, acting on behalf of the Federal Aviation Agency (“FAA”), filed a declaration of taking for the acquisition of fee simple title to approximately 119.38 acres of land located in Jefferson Township, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. The land was a portion of that realty, some 420 acres in all, locally referred to as the Mary Conrad Tract. The condemnation site was acquired for construction of an air navigational aid to be known as the Lake Henry VORTAC Facility (“VORTAC”).1

[463]*463In an order entered November 21, 1957, the district court concluded that the owner of the condemnation tract was the First National Bank of Plymouth, Pennsylvania (now the Wyoming National Bank of Wilkes-Barre) and that taxes were due and owing to the County of Lackawanna. The court order approved distribution of the estimated amount of just compensation (as determined by appraisal) between these two claimants.

Construction of the VORTAC facility and associated buildings was begun by the FAA in 1951 and completed in 1958. There have been no additions or modifications to these structures since that time. In the same year that the United States moved to acquire the VORTAC site by condemnation, it also undertook to acquire, by lease, an access road to that site. Land for the road was leased from one Emery Propst in 1951 and, pursuant to this lease and its annual renewals the United States continued payments to Propst and his heirs until 1979.2 Construction of the access road was undertaken and completed in 1951. Other than necessary repair and maintenance operations, there have been no changes to the road as originally leased.

The successive ownership interests which plaintiffs are asserting here trace back to 1950 and to an agreement of that year between John J. Scoblick, Jr. and the First National Bank of Plymouth, Pennsylvania. This agreement contemplated Scoblick’s purchase of the Mary Conrad Tract from the bank for the sum of $2,500. A check in the amount of ten percent of the purchase price accompanied the signing of this agreement.

Execution of this planned property transfer was delayed for a number of years, presumably because of the then-pending condemnation proceedings. Although a draft of a proposed warranty deed was submitted to Scoblick by the bank on August 29, 1952, nothing came of this. In fact, it was not until November of 1959— well after the Government’s condemnation action and facilities construction had been completed — that the bank, acting in accordance with Scoblick’s instructions executed a deed conveying title to the remainder of the Mary Conrad Tract, less some 50 acres in the southeasterly corner, to Indian Cave Enterprises, Inc. (then known as Blueberry Corporation of America).

Ownership of the property thus acquired remained in Indian Cave’s hands until April 15, 1974; on that date, the deed to the property was conveyed to Scoblick. Similarly, as to the 50 acres which had been reserved by the bank upon its transfer of the property to Indian Cave, these too came into Scoblick’s ownership through an adverse possession proceeding. His total holdings in the Mary Conrad Tract, therefore, came to roughly 320 acres.

Questions concerning the boundaries of the land which the United States had condemned for the Lake Henry VORTAC facility began to be raised by plaintiffs in 1971. Then, in May of 1974, Scoblick engaged the services of a surveyor to determine the metes and bounds of the property. The surveyor, however, died before his work was completed. Shortly thereafter (i.e., in 1977), the Government itself decided to undertake a survey of the property. According to plaintiffs, the Government’s survey (which was not completed until April of 1980) “for the first time, corrected a misapprehension concerning the property lines which had been created by errors in the Government’s original Declaration of Taking in 1951” in that it revealed the location of the Lake Henry VORTAC facility to be upon lands formerly owned by Indian Cave and now owned by Scoblick. Also apparently shown by the survey was that the right of way which the United States had been leasing from Emery Propst was, in fact, land owned in part by plaintiffs.

In consequence of these various allegations, plaintiffs seek damages from the United States in the amount of $1,416,000 plus interest from November 10, 1959 (the [464]*464date the property was conveyed to Indian Cave by the bank).

Discussion

I.

The Government has moved for summary judgment on the ground, among others, that plaintiffs’ suit is, in part, barred by the statute of limitations. Beyond doubt, it is. Title 28 of the United States Code, Section 2501 (1982), provides that every claim over which this court has jurisdiction “shall be barred unless the petition thereon is filed within six years after such claim first accrues.” The taking of chief concern here — the Government’s construction of a building whose siting resulted in the permanent invasion of adjoining land — was an event that was final and complete in November of 1958, some 23 years prior to the initiation of this action. Since all events that identified the taking were then in place, plaintiffs’ suit should have been brought no later than November of 1964.3 A suit at this late juncture is time-barred. Kabua Kabua v. United States, 212 Ct.Cl. 160, 165, 546 F.2d 381, 384 (1976); Bayshore Resources Co. v. United States, 2 Cl.Ct. 625, 633 (1983).

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Related

United States v. Dow
357 U.S. 17 (Supreme Court, 1958)
Margoline v. Holefelder
218 A.2d 227 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1966)
Lyons v. ANDREWS
313 A.2d 313 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1973)
Brown v. McConnell
93 A.2d 896 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1953)
Burns v. Mitchell
381 A.2d 487 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1977)
Bayshore Resources Co. v. United States
2 Cl. Ct. 625 (Court of Claims, 1983)
Kabua v. United States
546 F.2d 381 (Court of Claims, 1976)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
5 Cl. Ct. 461, 1984 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1377, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indian-cave-enterprises-inc-v-united-states-cc-1984.