Rousseaux v. United States
| Decision Date | 07 May 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 24393.,24393. |
| Parties | Mrs. Rosa Lee Craft ROUSSEAUX, Stonewall Jackson Craft and Alan Craft, Jr., Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Michael D. Haas, Bay St. Louis, Miss., for appellants.
Edwin L. Weisl, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., William M. Cohen, Roger P. Marquis, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Robert E. Hauberg, U. S. Atty., and Edwin R. Holmes, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Jackson, Miss., for appellee.
Before GEWIN and COLEMAN, Circuit Judges, and HUGHES, District Judge.
The appellants (landowners) are attacking a condemnation action in which restrictive use easements were acquired across two tracts of land totaling ninety acres owned by them in Hancock County, Mississippi. The easement, which prohibited human habitation or the construction of buildings for such habitation, was imposed in connection with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's requirement for a protective buffer zone to surround the Mississippi Test Facility where rockets would be test fired. The action was brought in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, and pursuant to Rule 71A(h), F.R.Civ.P., the court appointed a three man commission to hear the evidence and make findings as to just compensation. The commission held its hearings and awarded appellants $2,550. Appellants filed objections which the district court overruled. An order was then entered by the court confirming the commission's report. From this order the landowners appeal. We affirm.
The commission was correctly charged that just compensation was to be determined by subtracting the fair market value of the land after the taking from its pre-taking fair market value. The parties did not dispute that the highest and best use of the land after the easement was imposed was for growing timber. However, the highest and best use of the land before the taking was sharply contested, as was the issue of value. Both sides presented expert witnesses and conflicting evidence to support their separate positions. The commission entered findings and conclusions which more nearly conformed to the government's contention that the optimum pre-taking use of the land was for the growing of timber, as opposed to appellant's contention that its highest and best use was for homesites, cultivation and timberland.
Appellants challenge the award in this court on the grounds that (1) the awards were inadequate and not based...
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STATE OF LOUISIANA, SABINE RIVER AUTHORITY v. Carter, Civ. A. No. 11792
...evidence to support the Commission's evidentiary findings, and that its awards were not "clearly erroneous." Rousseaux et al. v. United States of America, 394 F.2d 123 (5 Cir. 1968); Evans v. United States, 326 F.2d 827 (8 Cir. 1964); Buena Vista Homes, Inc. v. United States, 281 F.2d 476 (......
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U.S. v. 6,162.78 Acres of Land, More or Less, Situated in Concordia Parish, State of La., 81-3183
...proceeding is within the sole purview of the fact-finder, and it is not for this court to reweigh the evidence. Rousseaux v. United States, 394 F.2d 123, 124-25 (5th Cir. 1968). Rather, we must determine whether the verdict was within the range of the evidence. United States v. 416.81 Acres......