$133,500,000 CFC Verdict For A Categorical Lucas Taking

We're tied up today, so can't write much, but wanted to post this recent decision from the Court of Federal Claims. Here's the court's own summary:

Plaintiffs Love Terminal Partners, L.P. (“Love Terminal Partners”) and Virginia Aerospace, LLC (“Virginia Aerospace”) are leaseholders of property at Dallas Love Field Airport (“Love Field”), located in Dallas, Texas. In their complaint, filed in the United States Court of Federal Claims (“Court of Federal Claims”) on July 23, 2008, plaintiffs allege that the federal government, through the enactment of the Wright Amendment Reform Act of 2006 (“WARA”), prohibited the use of their property, thereby destroying all economic value or benefit of their leasehold and effecting a taking without just compensation, in contravention of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs seek compensation for the taking as well as interest from the date of the taking, attorneys’ fees, appraiser and expert witness fees, and the costs and expenses of litigation.

In a prior decision issued on February 11, 2011, the court denied defendant’s motion to dismiss and granted plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment. ... The court further concluded that through the enactment of the WARA, defendant was responsible for the demolition of the six-gate Lemmon Avenue terminal, resulting in a physical taking of Love Terminal Partners’ property[.] ... The court left for trial the following two issues: (1) whether the federal government took the remainder of the leasehold without paying just compensation, and if so, what amount was due; and (2) the amount of just compensation plaintiffs were due for the per se physical taking of the six-gate Lemmon Avenue terminal.

After a trial, the CFC concluded that "there was a categorical taking of the entire leasehold, and that plaintiffs are entitled to just compensation in the amount of $133,500,000."

Wow.

The court also found that alternatively, there was a Penn Central taking. 

There's a lot to digest in the 70-page single spaced opinion (the thing even has a table of contents).

Check it out. We know we will once we've got more time. 

Congratulations to the property owners' lawyer, of course. 

Love Terminal Partners v. United States, No. 08-536L (Ct. Cl. Apr. 19, 2016)