Alamo Land Cattle Co Inc v. Arizona

• Decision Date: 24 February 1976
• Docket Number: No. 74-125,74-125
• Parties: ALAMO LAND & CATTLE CO., INC., Petitioner, v. State of ARIZONA
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

424 U.S. 295

96 S.Ct. 910

47 L.Ed.2d 1

ALAMO LAND & CATTLE CO., INC., Petitioner,

v State of ARIZONA.

No. 74-125.

Argued Oct. 14, 15, 1975.

Decided Feb. 24, 1976.

Syllabus

In 1962 Arizona, as lessor, and petitioner, as lessee, executed a 10-year grazing lease of certain tracts of land which had been granted to Arizona to be held in trust under the New Mexico-Arizona Enabling Act. In 1966 the United States filed a condemnation complaint in connection with a flood control dam and reservoir which included the leased tracts. In allocating the stipulated compensation payable by the United States for the tracts the District Court awarded Arizona a certain amount for its fee interest and petitioner one amount for the improvements and another amount for "its leasehold interest at the time of taking and its reasonable prospective leasehold interest." The Court of Appeals, while recognizing that petitioner was entitled to compensation for the improvements, and finding it unnecessary to determine petitioner's rights based upon the provisions of the lease or upon state law, held that under the Enabling Act Arizona, as trustee, had no power to grant a compensable leasehold interest and that petitioner therefore never acquired a property right for which it is entitled to compensation. Held:

1. Nothing in the Enabling Act, apart, possibly, from the extent it may incorporate Arizona law by reference, prevents the usual application of Fifth Amendment protection of the outstanding leasehold interest whereby the holder of such an interest is entitled to just compensation for the value of that interest when it is taken upon condemnation by the United States. Pp. 300-308.

2. To be determined on remand are (1) whether, under state law and the provisions of the lease, petitioner could not possess a compensable leasehold interest upon the federal condemnation; (2) if petitioner did possess such an interest, how it is properly to be evaluated and calculated (with the subsidiary questions of the relevance of possible lease renewals and of possible value additions by reason of petitioner's development of adjoining properties); and (3) if that interest proves to be substantial, whether it is permissible to find from that fact a violation of the Enabling Act's requirement that a lease, when offered, shall be appraised at its "true value" and be given at not less than that value. Pp. 308-311.

9 Cir., 495 F.2d 12, reversed and remanded.

J. Gordon Cook, Phoenix, Ariz., for petitioner.

Mr. Justice BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case presents an issue of federal condemnation law as it relates to an outstanding lease of trust lands that, we are told, affects substantial acreage in our Southwestern and Western States.

I

Under § 24 ¹ of the New Mexico-Arizona Enabling Act, 36 Stat. 572 (1910), specified sections of every township in the then proposed State were granted to Arizona "for the support of common schools." By § 28 ² of the same Act, 36 Stat. 574, as amended by the Act of June 5, 1936, c. 517, 49 Stat. 1477, and by the Act of June 2, 1951, 65 Stat. 51, the lands transferred "shall be by the said State held in trust, to be disposed of in whole or in part only in manner as herein provided and for the several objects specified . . . and . . . the . . . proceeds of any of said lands shall be subject to the same trusts as the lands producing the same." Arizona, by its Constitution, Art. 10, § 1,³ accepted the lands so granted and its trusteeship over them.

Among the lands constituting the grant to Arizona were two parcels herein referred to as Tract 304 and Tract 305, respectively.⁴ On February 8, 1962, Arizona, as lessor, and petitioner Alamo Land and Cattle Company, Inc. (Alamo), as lessee, executed a grazing lease of these tracts for the 10-year period ending February 7, 1972. App. 6-14. By Arizona statute, Ariz.Rev.Stat.Ann. 37-281D (1974), incorporated by general reference into the lease, App. 7, Alamo may not use the lands for any purpose other than grazing.

On May 31, 1966, while the two tracts were subject to the grazing lease and were utilized as part of Alamo's larger operating cattle ranch, the United States filed a complaint in condemnation in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona in connection with the establishment of a flood control dam and reservoir at a site on the Bill Williams River. The tracts in their entirety were among the properties that were the subject of the complaint in condemnation. The District Court duly entered the customary order for delivery of possession.⁵

Thereafter, the United States and Arizona and, separately, the United States and Alamo, stipulated that "the full just compensation" payable by the United States "for the taking of said property, together with all improvements thereon and appurtenances thereunto belonging" was $48,220 for Tract 304 and $70,400 for Tract 305, and thus a total of $118,620 for the two. 1 Record 156, 162.⁶

At a distribution hearing held to determine the proper allocation of the compensation amounts, the only parties claiming an interest in the awards for the two tracts were respondent Arizona, asserting title through the federal grants to it, and petitioner Alamo, asserting a compensable leasehold interest in the lands and a compensable interest in the improvements thereon. The State conceded that Alamo was entitled to receive the value of the improvements, but contested Alamo's right, as lessee, to participate in the portion of the award allocated to land value. The District Court, with an unreported opinion, App. 1-5, awarded Arizona $57,970 for its fee interest, and awarded Alamo $3,600 for the improvements and $57,050 for "its leasehold interest at the time of taking, and its reasonable prospective leasehold interest." 1 Record 227-228. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, while recognizing that Alamo was entitled to compensation for the improvements, held that under the Enabling Act Arizona "had no power to grant a compensable property right to Alamo," and that "Alamo therefore never acquired a property right for which it is entitled to compensation." United States v. 2,562.92 Acres of Land, 495 F.2d 12, 14 (1974). The Court of Appeals thus reversed the judgment of the District Court insofar as it concerned the leasehold interests. It remanded the cause for the entry of a new judgment in accordance with its opinion. Id., at 15. Because the Ninth Circuit's decision appeared to implicate this Court's decision in Lassen v. Arizona ex rel. Arizona Highway Dept., 385 U.S. 458, 87 S.Ct. 584, 17 L.Ed.2d 515 (1967), and because it was claimed to be in conflict with Nebraska v. United States, 164 F.2d 866 (CA8 1947), cert. denied, 334 U.S. 815, 68 S.Ct. 1070, 92 L.Ed. 1745 (1948), we granted Alamo's petition for certiorari. Alamo Land & Cattle Co., Inc. v. Arizona, 420 U.S. 971, 95 S.Ct. 1390, 43 L.Ed.2d 650 (1975).

II

The Lassen case was an action instituted by the Arizona Highway Department to prohibit the application by the State Land Commissioner of rules governing the acquisition of rights-of-way and material sites in federally donated lands held by Arizona in trust pursuant to the provisions of the Enabling Act. What was involved therefore, was the acquisition of interests in trust lands by the State itself. The Supreme Court of Arizona held that it could be presumed conclusively that highways constructed across trust lands always enhanced the value of the remainder in amounts at least equal to the value of the areas taken and therefore refused to order the Highway Department to compensate the trust. State v. Lassen, 99 Ariz. 161, 407 P.2d 747 (1965). This Court unanimously reversed. In so doing, it observed that the more recent federal grants to newly admitted States, including Arizona, "make clear that the United States has a continuing interest in the administration of both the lands and the funds which derive from them." 385 U.S., at 460, 87 S.Ct., at 585.

The Court read § 28 of the Enabling Act with particularity. It emphasized the Act's requirements that trust lands be sold or leased only to " 'the highest and best bidder' "; that no lands be sold for less than their appraised value; that disposal of trust lands be " 'only in manner as herein provided' "; that disposition in any other way " 'shall be deemed a breach of trust' "; and that every sale or lease " 'not made in substantial conformity with the provisions of this Act shall be null and void.' " 385 U.S., at 461-462, 87 S.Ct., at 586. The Court then examined the purposes of the Act and concluded that the grant "was plainly expected to produce a fund, accumulated by sale and use of the trust lands, with which the State could support the public institutions designated by the Act." Id., at 463, 87 S.Ct., at 587. Sales and leases were intended. The "central problem" was "to devise constraints which would assure that the trust received in full fair compensation for trust lands." Ibid. The Court concluded, for reasons stated in the opinion, that the Act's procedural restrictions did not apply when the State itself sought trust lands for its highway program.

The Court then turned to the standard of compensation Arizona must employ to recompense the trust for the interests the State acquired. It concluded that the terms and purposes of the grant did not permit Arizona to diminish the actual monetary compensation payable to the trust by the amount of any enhancement in the value of remaining trust lands. The Court emphasized that the Enabling Act "unequivocally demands both that the trust receive the full value of any lands transferred from it and that any funds received be employed only for the purposes for which the land was given." Id., at 466, 87 S.Ct., at 588. It again stressed the requirements of the Act and noted that "these restrictions in combination indicate Congress' concern both that the grants provide the most...