Check out Evans v. United States, No. 2010-1303 (Fed. Cir. Sep. 17, 2012), a rails-to-trails case in which the Federal Circuit "confess[ed] to some puzzlement over exactly what all this sturm und drang is about." Slip op. at 9 (footnote omitted). The court resolved a procedural issue in favor of property owners (represented by our colleague Thor Hearne, who is a frequent guest poster on rails-to-trails takings issues, most recently here).
It's a short opinion so we won't go into it in detail, but the case details the procedural hurdles that property owners often must go though and the jurisdictional maze they must navigate to get their takings claims against the federal government resolved. Takings lawyers who practice in the Court of Federal Claims refer to the constant jumping back and forth between the District Courts and the CFC as the "Tucker Act Shuffle," and this opinion, while it does not mention that term, is clearly exasperated with the way the case played out. Read page 10 for more.
Evans v. United States, No. 2010-1303 (Fed. Cir. Sep. 17, 2012)
