areas-of-practice (2K)

Inverse Condemnation

railroad-tracksGSK has been involved in multiple cases where government regulation of private property was so burdensome it was equivalent to taking the land, requiring the payment of "just compensation."

For instance, GSK represents dozens of homeowners along the east side of Lake Sammamish on which Burlington National/Santa Fe Railroad formerly operated its railroad. The tracks were laid under an easement to use the area for railroad purposes. When the area stopped being used for a railroad, the land was to be free of the easement and owned in full by the residential property owners. A federal law, the National Rails to Trails Act, allows former railroad easements to be used for trails, thereby taking away the property owners' rights to have the land free and clear of the railroad easement. When King County took the land under this federal law, GSK clients pursued claims for a taking of the property interests in the Court of Federal Claims, where those claims are now pending.

GSK currently represents the owner of 161 mining claims in Southern Oregon. After completing the Environmental Impact Statement process, the United States Forest Service decided the mining could occur only if ore, equipment and personnel were transported by helicopter. Because this condition on mining was financially prohibitive, it is tantamount to ruling that the owner of the claims cannot develop them. GSK filed suit in the Court of Federal Claims seeking compensation under the Fifth Amendment for a taking of his mining claims.

In addition to litigating several cases where government regulation caused a taking of private property, GSK attorneys have been recognized nationally as having experience in this area of the law. For instance, John Groen has spoken on related issues at the last six Inverse Condemnation and Related Government Liability Seminars hosted by the American Law Institute-American Bar Association and Pacific Legal Foundation.

Given the relatively few law firms with experience in litigating takings claims, clients in those circumstances have confidence in the added value that only experience can bring.