Posted on 06/10/2008 9:59:35 PM PDT by george76
A judge awarded more than $4.2 million to a late Nevada rancher's estate after finding that the U.S. Forest Service engaged in an unconstitutional "taking" of water rights out of hostility to the rancher, a property rights activist.
The decision ... involved the Fifth Amendment clause against private property being taken for public use without just compensation.
The rancher, Wayne Hage, bought the sprawling Pine Creek Ranch in central Nevada in 1978.
the taking occurred when the Forest Service made it impossible for Hage to maintain irrigation ditches, which deprived the ranch of water and made it unviable.
The government demanded that he maintain the ditches using nothing more than hand tools.
Hage first filed a claim seeking $28 million in 1991. In an interview in 2004, two years before his death, he told The Associated Press his case could dramatically impact states' rights and federal lands in the West.
"It's the first time in nearly a century that someone has effectively challenged the government over who owns the range rights and water rights out here on these federal lands,"
The judge noted that hand tools would not be effective over such vast expanse of land. The ditches brought water to the 7,000-acre ranch as well as the 700,000 acres of national forest land where Hage grazed his cattle.
Hage "offered ample evidence that the Forest Service had engaged in harassment toward (him), enough to suggest that the implementation of the hand tools requirement was based solely on hostility to plaintiffs,"...
Hage was one of the leaders of the so-called "Sagebrush Rebellion" during the 1980s, a movement among Western landowners who believed the federal government had no jurisdiction over their property because the ranches predate the federal agencies that sought to regulate them.
(Excerpt) Read more at charlotte.com ...
Bump for the sane judge that heard the case.
I’m a proud member of the Sagebrush Rebellion since 1978.
I still think the Intermountain West should abdicate bump.
Sadly, the “war on the west” continues unabated...
I'm not so sure. The 4.2 million is a small fraction of the real damages, so perhaps the judge has pulled an inverse Solomon on them. If the heirs decide to take the money and shut up, the case is over, and the pittance will set precedent, and make the next case likely to get even less.
This will just continue to get worse until the faceless beaucratic are made to be responsible from their own financial well-being. The response is always that people wouldn’t take the government jobs if their personal fortunes were at stake. And the response to that is, “What’s your point?”
From Liberty Matters:
Epic Victory for Hage Family
After 17 years in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Wayne and Jean Hage’s takings case has been decided – and it is a great victory for private property rights in America!
The Hages claimed that the federal government (U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management) had taken their western ranch, a combination of private base property and federal grazing allotments, through physical and regulatory takings. It is a landmark case because it is the first of its kind to achieve clarity as to what property rights ranchers own on federal grazing allotments and clarifies that if certain property rights are taken through grazing and environmental regulations, the government must pay just compensation.
The court decided that the Hages owned the water rights, ditch rights of ways, and the range improvements on the federal lands. It also found that although the government has the right to authorize and cancel grazing permits, it does not have the right to prevent the ranchers from accessing their water rights on federal lands. The court ruled that a regulatory and physical taking occurred and, therefore, the government owes the estates of Wayne and Jean Hage just compensation, interest for the 17 years, and attorney’s fees.
Stewards of the Range, a membership driven, non-profit organization, assisted the Hage case with funding. “Without the Stewards members, this landmark decision would not be written in case law,” stated Margaret Byfield, executive director of Stewards. “The critical precedent and deterrent is now set that when land management agencies attempt to regulate away private property, they risk invoking a taking for which they must pay just compensation under the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution.”
I have been a proud member of the Sagebrush Rebellion/Win Back the West movement since 1990.
Will the government appeal the jury’s decision? Also... why did it take 17 years for this decision?
At last, something for the right side.
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