Ensuring Just Compensation: Imposing a Reasonable Time Limit on Payment of Money Judgments Under the Fifth Amendment

Authors

Paul Mackey

Abstract

The government’s use of eminent domain power to take private property for public use remains a controversial and fast-moving area of law. The Fifth Amendment was ratified as a check on the state’s use of eminent domain power by requiring just compensation after a taking. There is great variation among the states regarding the requirements of just compensation in an eminent domain claim. Some states are unwilling to provide any compensation at all, while others ensure full compensation. Property owners whose land has been taken face a dilemma when, after winning a money judgment in state court, they are unable to collect their judgment because their state legislature refuses to appropriate the funds to pay the judgment.

In 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States provided some relief to beleaguered property owners across the nation facing the uncertain promise of just compensation from their own state courts. Property owners can now go directly to federal court and pursue their claims as the Court held the state litigation exhaustion requirement unconstitutional. Despite this development, property owners still face the obstacle of state sovereign immunity, which bars many of their claims, as well as the federal circuit courts’ divergent interpretations of what just compensation is.

This Comment explores the historical background of the Fifth Amendment to the federal Constitution and how the Supreme Court has interpreted its language. Louisiana and Florida provide a comparison of how much compensation property owners can get depending on which state their property is located in. This Comment argues that in order to satisfy the Fifth Amendment, the government must provide just compensation to the property owner within a reasonable time. Finally, this Comment examines how just compensation is not merely a constitutional mandate, but good economic policy.

Recommended Citation

Paul Mackey, Ensuring Just Compensation: Imposing a Reasonable Time Limit on Payment of Money Judgments Under the Fifth Amendment, 128 Dick. L. Rev. 803 (2024).
Available at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlr/vol128/iss3/7