In City of North Las Vegas v. 5th & Centennial, LLC, the Nevada Supreme Court reconfirmed that in cases involving precondemnation damages, interest on the just compensation award runs from the date of the taking, not the date of the eventual summons.
This was one of those delay cases, where the project was started, and then stalled, resuling in an inverse condemnation claim by landowners whose properties were clouded by the project, but not formally condemned:
When the economy stalled in recent years, so did the City's progress on the northern half of the Project, which relied on federal funding. On January 1, 2010, the Landowners filed a complaint against the City for inverse condemnation and precondemnation damages, asserting that the City's delay in condemning their properties had prevented them from advantageously selling their properties. Following an eight-day bench trial, the district court concluded that the inverse condemnation claim was not ripe but awarded the landowners precondemnation damages. The district court further awarded the Landowners attorneys fees, costs, and prejudment interest.
Slip op. at 3-4.
The court rejected the City's argument that the date of the summons was the date from which interest should have been measured, even though "the Nevada Constitution's definition of just compensation, allows for interest to be calculated from the date of the taking." Id. at 4. A taking can occur before the summons, and if the date of the taking is before the date of the summons, the Nevada Constitution requires that just compensation be measured from the earlier date.
A short one, worth reading.
City of North Las Vegas v. 5th & Centennial, LLC, No. 58530 (Nev. Aug. 7, 2014)
