Arkansas Fish and Game – Remand Briefs
As you know from our December 2012 blog, the United States Supreme Court found that an Army Corps flooding program, which damaged a hardwood forest managed by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, may constitute a taking of private property. Therefore, the Court upheld the property owner’s inverse condemnation claim, reversed the Fifth Court’s decision and remanded the matter to the Federal Court of Claims to adjudicate constitutional “just compensation.”
The parties have now submitted their briefs on remand. Our Owners’ Counsel colleague, Robert H. Thomas, Esq. has them available on his blog. Click here for the property owner’s brief, and here for the government’s brief. The government argues that it “did not take a flowage easement” and “at most, there was a modest, unforeseeable, and incremental increase in flooding.” (Db1). The property owner argues that the Corp’s induced flooding resulted in “catastrophic mortality” of several different tree species. (Pb8).
We’ll keep you posted.
Related articles
- Flood Control and Takings: Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States (aquadoc.typepad.com)
- Loophole would allow landowners to sue Corps of Engineers over Missouri River flood losses (kansascity.com)
- Army Corps of Engineers braces for flood fight (fox4kc.com)
