Jankovich v. Indiana Toll Road Commission

379 U.S. 487, 85 S. Ct. 493, 13 L. Ed. 2d 439, 1965 U.S. LEXIS 2241
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedJanuary 18, 1965
Docket60
StatusPublished
Cited by55 cases

This text of 379 U.S. 487 (Jankovich v. Indiana Toll Road Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jankovich v. Indiana Toll Road Commission, 379 U.S. 487, 85 S. Ct. 493, 13 L. Ed. 2d 439, 1965 U.S. LEXIS 2241 (1965).

Opinions

Mr. Justice White

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Pursuant to a 20-year lease with the City of Gary, Indiana, petitioners are. the operators of Gary Municipal Airport, one of the airports included in the National Airport Plan. They seek review of a decision invalidating the city’s airport zoning ordinance, which, with regard to buildings and other structures in the immediate vicinity of the airport, prescribes height limitations based upon a 40-to-l glide angle for approaching aircraft (i. e., at a distance of 40 feet from the end of the planned runway, structures may not exceed one foot in height). After passage of the'ordinance, respondent,, the Indiana Toll Road Commission, constructed a toll road parallel to the south side of the airport and 443 feet from the end of the. planned runway. Contending that at that location the ordinance prescribes a maximum height of 18.08 feet above the surrounding land and that respondent’s toll road (which is raised 29.8 feet above the surrounding land surface) violates the ordinance, petitioners brought suit in the Indiana Courts for injunctive relief and damages. Although it refused to grant an injunction, the trial court awarded petitioners damages of $164,000 and costs. That judgment was reversed by the Supreme Court of [489]*489Indiana, which concluded that “the ordinance purported to authorize an unlawful and unconstitutional appropriation of property rights without payment of compensation.” 244 Ind. 574, 584, 193 N. E. 2d 237, 242. Because it appeared that the. case involved the validity of airport zoning regulations under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and therefore presented important questions affecting the National Airport Plan not previously considered by this Court, we granted certiorari. 377 U. S. 942.

Respondent suggests, however, that we are without jurisdiction to review the judgment of the Supreme Court of Indiana because that judgment was based on an independent and adequate state ground. It is undoubtedly

“ ‘the settled rule that where the judgment of a state court rests upon two grounds, one of which is federal and the other non-federal in character, our jurisdiction fails if the non-federal ground is independent of the federal ground and adequate to support the judgment.’ Fox Film Corp. v. Muller, 296 U. S. 207, 210.” Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, 368 U. S. 278, 281.

As we have concluded that respondent is correct in its contention that the judgment sought to be reviewed is supported by an independent and adequate state ground, we dismiss the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted.

In the Indiana Supreme Court respondent relied on the just compensation requirement of the.Indiana Constitution as well as on the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Indiana Supreme Court stated the issue for decision as whether “the ordinance purport [s] to effect a taking of private property for public use in violation of the provisions of Article 1, § 21 of [490]*490the Indiana Constitution1 and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” 244 Ind., at 577, 193 N. E. 2d, at 238. In resolving that issue, however, the Indiana Supreme Court, quite understandably, did not analyze separately the effect of the two provisions but considered them together. From that fact petitioners would have us. conclude that the state ground of decision — invalidity of the zoning ordinance under Art. 1, § 21, of the Indiana Constitution — “is so interwoven with the other as not to be an independent matter . . . .” Enterprise Irrig. District v. Canal Co., 243 U. S. 157, 164 (dictum). (Emphasis added.) We cannot agree.

Quoting both Art. 1, § 21, of the Indiana Constitution and § 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment and citing both a decision of this Court, Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U. S. 393, and one of its own decisions, General Outdoor Advertising Co. v. City of Indianapolis, 202 Ind. 85, 172 N. E. 309 (1930), the Indiana Supreme Court began its analysis with the proposition that private property may not be taken for public use without compensation. Two issues were singled out as determinative of whether the ordinance under consideration violated that constitutional protection: “(1) Whether air space above land is a constitutionally protected property right, and (2) whether in the instant case there has been a constitutionally proscribed taking.” 244 Ind., at 578, 193 N. E. 2d, at 239.

In holding that landowners did have a protected property interest in the airspace above their land, the court first discussed an Indiana statute, Acts 1927, c. 43, § 3, [491]*491Burns Ind. Stat. Ann. § 14-103 (1950 Repl.) (“The ownership of the space above the lands and waters of this state is declared to be vested in the several owners of the surface beneath, . . and a prior interpretation, of state law, Capitol Airways, Inc. v. Indianapolis P. & L. Co., 215 Ind. 462, 466, 18 N. E. 2d 776, 778 (1939) (airport operator has no right to damages from public utility whose power .line obstructs flight into and out of airport). In addition, the Indiana Supreme Court cited and discussed two cases of this Court holding low altitude overflights to constitute a taking of an air easement requiring just compensation under the United States Constitution. Griggs v. Allegheny County, 369 U. S. 84; United States v. Causby, 328 U. S. 256. But nothing in the court’s opinion suggests that its conclusion that “[i]n the light of the above authorities . . . the reasonable and ordinary use of air space above land is a property right which cannot be taken without the payment of compensation,” 244 Ind., at 581, 193 N. E. 2d, at 240, flows from a federal rather than a state source. Indeed, the organization and language of the opinion indicates that, at the least, state law is an equal ground of decision.

The discussion of the second question — whether the ordinance effects a proscribed taking, as opposed to a reasonable regulation under the police power — similarly interlaces Indiana and federal decisions, as well as decisions of other state courts. Again there is no intimation that the conclusion that the ordinance entails “an unlawful and unconstitutional appropriation of property rights without payment of compensation,” 244 Ind., at 584, 193 N. E. 2d, at 242, is based less forcefully on the Indiana Constitution than on the Fourteenth Amendment.

In such circumstances, even though a state court’s opinion relies on similar provisions in both the State and Federal Constitutions, the state constitutional provision has been held to provide an independent and adequate [492]*492ground of decision depriving this Court of jurisdiction to review the state judgment. New York City v. Central Savings Bank,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Tennessee v. Christopher Wilson - Concurring
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2016
143rd Street Investors, L.L.C. v. Board of County Commissioners
259 P.3d 644 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2011)
Vacation Village, Inc. v. Clark County, Nev
497 F.3d 902 (Ninth Circuit, 2007)
Vorhees v. NAPER AERO CLUB, INC.
96 F. Supp. 2d 820 (N.D. Illinois, 2000)
DPF, Inc. v. Board of Commissioners
622 N.E.2d 1332 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1993)
People v. District Court
834 P.2d 181 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1992)
Eaton v. Commonwealth
397 S.E.2d 385 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1990)
State v. Tucker
728 S.W.2d 27 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1986)
Sirilan v. Castro
1 N. Mar. I. Commw. 1082 (Northern Mariana Islands, 1984)
In Re" Agent Orange" Product Liability Litigation
580 F. Supp. 690 (E.D. New York, 1984)
South Dakota v. Neville
459 U.S. 553 (Supreme Court, 1983)
State v. Caraher
653 P.2d 942 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1982)
Town of St. John v. Home Builders Ass'n of Northern Indiana, Inc.
428 N.E.2d 1299 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1981)
Unger v. Indiana & Michigan Electric Co.
420 N.E.2d 1250 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1981)
Federated Publications, Inc. v. Kurtz
615 P.2d 440 (Washington Supreme Court, 1980)
McShane v. City of Faribault
292 N.W.2d 253 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1980)
State Ex Rel. Anglin v. Mitchell
596 S.W.2d 779 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1980)
Miller v. State
584 S.W.2d 758 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
379 U.S. 487, 85 S. Ct. 493, 13 L. Ed. 2d 439, 1965 U.S. LEXIS 2241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jankovich-v-indiana-toll-road-commission-scotus-1965.