Mitchell v. United States

41 Fed. Cl. 617, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 188, 1998 WL 470657
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedAugust 12, 1998
DocketNo. 97-605L
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 41 Fed. Cl. 617 (Mitchell 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
Mitchell v. United States, 41 Fed. Cl. 617, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 188, 1998 WL 470657 (uscfc 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

MILLER, Judge.

This case is before the court after argument on defendant’s motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, for summary judgment. The issues to be decided are whether plaintiffs filed their claim within the applicable six-year statute of limitations and, if so, whether a series of actions taken by the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management and the United States Department of the Navy that prevented plaintiffs from grazing their cattle on a portion of previously public lands on which they possessed state-law vested water rights, culminating in the cancellation of certain range improvements associated with plaintiffs’ water rights, constituted a compensable taking under the Fifth Amendment.

FACTS

The following facts are undisputed, unless otherwise noted. William Mitchell, Jr., and Ann L. Mitchell (“plaintiffs”) were joint tenants holding title to a parcel of land located in San Bernardino County, California, that is adjacent to a large parcel known as the Pilot Knob Allotment. At one point the Pilot Knob Allotment was entirely within the public domain and under the administrative control of the United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management (the “BLM”). Because plaintiffs’ land was adjacent to the Pilot Knob Allotment and also fell within the definition of a base property,1 plaintiffs and their predecessors in interest were entitled to, and did receive, leases or permit/leases from the BLM permitting them to graze their livestock on the entire Pilot Knob Allotment.

Recognizing that the lands involved in the case at bar are located in a particularly arid region, the BLM allowed those permittees with grazing privileges to construct certain range improvements to facilitate the retrieval and use of water that existed on publicly held lands. Thus, in 1953, the BLM authorized Jack Crawford, one of plaintiffs’ predecessors in interest, to build six range improvements that entailed developing wells and springs, so that his livestock could water while grazing on the Pilot Knob Allotment. By 1958 the State Water Resources Control Board (the “SWRCB”)2 recognized that Mr. [619]*619Crawford was deriving beneficial use from the six springs and wells and therefore granted him License Nos. 5788, 5789, 5790, 5791, 5792, and 5793, each with a priority date of August 23, 1956.3 These water rights constitute the property that plaintiffs allege has been taken.

The events underlying the alleged taking of plaintiffs’ water rights began to develop in 1963 when the United States Department of the Navy (the “Navy”) reserved 50,000 acres of the Pilot Knob Allotment, known as the Mojave B Range,4 for various military uses including the creation of a Naval Weapons Center, China Lake (the “NWC”). It is at this point that the parties’ respective understanding of the events leading up to the alleged taking begin to differ. Defendant’s position is that in 1963 the Navy withdrew the Mojave B Range from public use and reserved it for its own exclusive use for a period of 15 years pursuant to Pub.L. No. 88-161, 77 Stat. 279 (1963). Defendant further contends that, when Pub.L. No. 88-161 expired in 1978, the Navy maintained its exclusive use of the Mojave B Range through certain administrative actions.

Plaintiffs take issue with defendant’s version of the withdrawal of the Mojave B Range on several grounds. First, according to plaintiffs, the Navy never had exclusive use of the 50,000 acres, as evidenced by the fact that they and their predecessors continued to graze their livestock on the entire Pilot Knob Allotment until 1991. Plaintiffs also suggest that the original withdrawal was for a period of only ten years and subsequently was extended for another five years. At the expiration of the five-year extension, the Navy sought a two-year extension of the reservation, which, while under consideration, caused the reserved portion of the Pilot Knob Allotment to remain withdrawn until April 1980. Plaintiffs maintain that the Mojave B Range was not subject again to a withdrawal until 1994 and therefore was not withdrawn from the public domain when plaintiffs acquired the water rights at issue. Without conceding the exact status of the Mojave B Range for the period of 1978 through 1994, defendant takes the position that, even if plaintiffs’ version of the facts is correct, it is irrelevant to the case at bar because grazing privileges are always subject to termination by the BLM.

The relevance of whether portions of the Pilot Knob Allotment were withdrawn from the public domain is not dispositive, although it is uncontroverted that the sites of the alleged water rights at issue are all within the Mojave B Range portion of the Pilot Knob Allotment. Even when the Mojave B Range was not subject to official withdrawal, the Navy continued to operate the NWC and worked with the BLM to assure that its needs were recognized vis-a-vis ranching operations. For example, subsequent to the reservation of the Mojave B Range, the Navy permitted grazing, subject to its military requirements, on the entire Pilot Knob Allotment. Defendant cites as evidence the fact that the Navy and the BLM entered into an April 1980 Memorandum of Understanding by which the BLM was authorized to regulate grazing on the entire Pilot Knob Allotment subject to the Navy’s needs on the 50,000 acres that it previously had withdrawn for military use. Plaintiffs challenge this assertion only insofar far as they take issue with the claim that the 50,000 acres were reserved exclusively for the Navy from 1963 through 1994.

In accordance with the Navy’s policy of allowing grazing on the entire Pilot Knob Allotment, the BLM in 1971 entered into a lease with Joe Mendiburu, plaintiffs’ immediate predecessor in interest, that allowed Mr. Mendiburu to graze livestock on the entire Pilot Knob Allotment. The one caveat, however, was that Mr. Mendiburu was required to reapply each year to the BLM for continued authorization to graze the entire parcel. Mr. Mendiburu did apply each year and received reauthorization until April 1983, when the policy of authorizing grazing on the entire parcel came to an abrupt halt. Upon receiving Mr. Mendiburu’s application, the [620]*620BLM and Navy representatives informed Mr. Mendiburu that he would no longer be permitted to graze livestock on the Mojave B Range because the George Air Force Base’s Cuddeback Gunnery Training Range now was located on a portion of the Mojave B Range and the presence of this facility would not permit continued unfettered use of the entire Pilot Knob Allotment. From this point onward, the BLM notified Mr. Mendiburu via grazing bills that he was permitted only to graze livestock on portions of the Pilot Knob Allotment not occupied by the Navy.

The importance of the BLM’s prohibiting Mr. Mendiburu from utilizing that portion of the Pilot Knob Allotment occupied by the Navy is that the range improvements and alleged water rights at issue in the present controversy are located on Navy lands. Thus, defendant posits that, by preventing plaintiffs and their predecessors from accessing the Mojave B Range portion of the Pilot Knob Allotment, the BLM also prevented them from accessing their range improvements and from utilizing the alleged water rights. Although the Navy recognized plaintiffs’ alleged water rights, defendant notes that it was solely for the purpose of permitting plaintiffs’ access to their range improvements for the limited purpose of maintaining those improvements.

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Related

Walker v. United States
69 Fed. Cl. 222 (Federal Claims, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 Fed. Cl. 617, 1998 U.S. Claims LEXIS 188, 1998 WL 470657, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mitchell-v-united-states-uscfc-1998.