Suess Builders Co. v. City of Beaverton

714 P.2d 229, 77 Or. App. 440
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJanuary 29, 1986
Docket40-569; CA A32936
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 714 P.2d 229 (Suess Builders Co. v. City of Beaverton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Suess Builders Co. v. City of Beaverton, 714 P.2d 229, 77 Or. App. 440 (Or. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

*442 WARREN, J.

Plaintiffs appeal an adverse judgment on their inverse condemnation and 42 USC § 1983 (1982) claims. The claim for inverse condemnation seeks just compensation for property that allegedly has been taken in fact for public use and is based on the Oregon Constitution, Article I, section 18, and the Fifth Amendment, made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. 1 The claim under 42 USC § 1983 (1982) incorporates the factual allegations of the inverse condemnation claim and seeks damages for deprivation of property rights protected by the federal constitution. 2 Plaintiffs’ taking claim under Article I, section 18, was tried first, and the jury returned a verdict for defendants. The trial court then granted defendants’ motion for a directed verdict on plaintiffs’ federal claims.

This action has been on appeal once before. Suess Builders v. City of Beaverton, 56 Or App 573, 642 P2d 361 (1982), rev’d 294 Or 254, 656 P2d 306 (1982)(Suess I). The primary issues in this appeal concern whether the case was tried in accordance with those previous appellate decisions. We hold that it was and affirm.

We restate the facts from this court’s previous decision.

*443 “Plaintiffs own a parcel of land in the City of Beaverton (city) consisting of 9.4 acres. * * * The parcel was designated in 1960 as low density residential. In 1966, plaintiffs sought a zone change in order to develop an apartment complex on the property. The zone change was denied, but the application was remanded to the Planning Commission for reconsideration as a planned residential development. In 1971, plaintiffs were informed that they would have to submit a new development proposal for the property. Such a proposal was never submitted.
“While this application procedure was going on, defendant Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District (district) advised the city that the property was desired for use as a park. The district entered into negotiations with plaintiffs; several offers were made which plaintiffs rejected as substantially below the fair market value of the property for residential use. In 1972, the city adopted a comprehensive plan which designated the eastern two-thirds of plaintiffs’ property as a park site, leaving the remaining one-third as low density residential. The plan directed that the district and the city should initiate a regular program for the acquisition and development of parks. The zoning of plaintiffs’ property was never changed. In April, 1976, the district informed plaintiffs that another site had been selected for park use.
“In 1977, plaintiffs sought rezoning of their property from low density to medium density residential. The city indicated that a plan amendment would be required for such a rezoning. By November, 1978, the district recommended that the park designation be removed from plaintiffs’ property in the comprehensive plan. In April, 1979, the park designation was removed, but plaintiffs’ application to increase the allowable densities was denied.” Suess Builders v. City of Beaverton, supra, 56 Or App at 575. (footnote omitted).

The first twelve assignments of error present the initial issue: Was it error for the court to exclude evidence which is claimed to prove that defendants abused their condemnation authority? We will assume that such evidence is relevant to a theory of taking based on governmental intrusion in trespass or nuisance which substantially interferes with a landowner’s property rights, as plaintiffs contend. See, e.g., Thompson v. Tualatin Hills Park & Rec., 496 F Supp 530 (D Or 1980). The initial issue is resolved by reviewing plaintiffs’ first appeal.

*444 In the first appeal this court affirmed the trial court’s judgment dismissing plaintiffs’ second amended complaint for failure to state a claim. Suess Builders v. City of Beaverton, supra. Relying on Fifth Avenue Corp. v. Washington Co., 282 Or 591, 581 P2d 50 (1978), we held that plaintiffs failed to allege the type of governmental intrusion, in trespass or nuisance, which would constitute a taking if proved. 56 Or App at 577. We also held that plaintiffs had failed to allege that they were precluded from all economically feasible private use pending the planned acquisition for public use, which would also constitute a taking if proved. 56 Or App at 578. That holding was based on the rule in Fifth Avenue that a land owner seeking to establish a taking cannot rely on the apparent preclusive effect of a comprehensive plan but must show that it used administrative procedures by which it might get the plan amended or obtain partial relief through an interim use. Fifth Avenue Corp. v. Washington Co., supra, 282 Or at 614. We noted plaintiffs’ allegations that they were induced by defendants to believe that the property would be acquired at its fair market value and as a result granted the city easements and refrained from further development applications. However, we did not consider those allegations sufficient to establish that plaintiffs were precluded from all economically feasible uses of the property.

On review, the Supreme Court disagreed with us in one respect and reversed and remanded. It held that there were allegations which, if proven, would support a finding that defendants had induced plaintiffs to forego exhaustion of their administrative remedies to obtain an economically feasible use of their property and that they were therefore excused from attempting to do so. The court stated:

“The * * * allegations do not set forth in detail how the governmental bodies ‘induced’ plaintiffs to forego further attempts to develop their property. These allegations may refer only to plaintiffs’ applications for multi-family residential development, which would require zone changes quite apart from the park designation, or they may refer to ‘inducing’ plaintiffs to abandon any development whatever because of defendants’ determination to acquire the land. The language is broad enough to encompass a hypothetical claim that defendants told plaintiffs that the property was certain to be acquired, that it would be useless to pursue any proposals for private development, and that defendants began to acquire *445 easements for certain facilities. If that were the case, and defendants later abandoned their plans, a court could find that one or perhaps both of the governmental bodies had temporarily taken all economic use of plaintiffs’ property. * * *” 294 Or at 263. (Emphasis supplied).

The Supreme Court concluded that plaintiffs had sufficiently alleged one theory of inverse condemnation, that they were induced to believe that they were precluded from all economically feasible private use pending the planned acquisition for public use. The Supreme Court did not, however, overrule our express holding that plaintiffs had failed to allege the type of governmental intrusion in trespass or nuisance from which a taking could be found.

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867 P.2d 503 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1993)

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Bluebook (online)
714 P.2d 229, 77 Or. App. 440, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/suess-builders-co-v-city-of-beaverton-orctapp-1986.