United States Federal Circuit

In this case, this court held that the U.S. Border Patrol’s placement of motion sensors on five separate particles of land owned by plaintiff Otay Mesa constituted the taking of permanent easements over the parcels. The case was remanded to the Court of Federal Claims for a determination of damages. On remand, the Court of Federal claims held that Otay Mesa was entitled to no damages for the taking of an easement over land that could be developed for industrial use (“development property”) and that it was entitled to $455,520 for that taking of an easement over land that could be used for environmental mitigation purposes (“mitigation property”). Otay Mesa challenges the decision of the Court of Federal Claims denying damages for the taking of an easement over the development property and computing interest on the damages award from the date that Otay Mesa became aware of the taking rather than from the date the sensors were first installed. The judgment of the Court of Federal Claims is affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded, where: 1) considering the whole record before the court, it was not clear error to deny damages for the development property; and 2) as a matter of law, the interest on the damages award must be calculated from the date the sensors first encumbered Otay Mesa’s property.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/06/2015
• Published 03/06/2015

Judges

• Schall

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel