United States Eleventh Circuit

Land Commission Report setting compensation payable by plaintiff-U.S. to defendants to take property by eminent domain is affirmed where: 1) in order for a fact finding body to ignore a regulation in calculating "just compensation" for property, the landowner must show that the primary purpose of the regulation was to depress the property value of land or that the ordinance was enacted with the specific intent of depressing property value for the purpose of later condemnation; 2) once the district court determines that a regulation or ordinance was not improperly used to prevent development and reduce value, there is no reason to present evidence of such allegations of improper use to a Commission charged with determining "just compensation"; 3) no actual bias was present in the Commission report filed on September 15, 2005, and the individual landowners' rights were preserved; 4) the Commission used an acceptable resolution mechanism to obtain uniform results across trials and issued a thoughtful and detailed report; and 5) defendants were not denied due process, and the district court did not err in deciding that the Commission was not biased or in refusing to grant defendants a new trial.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/11/2009
• Published 02/11/2009

Judges

Court

• United States Eleventh Circuit

Counsel