MR. JUSTICE REED delivered the opinion of the Court.
This writ of certiorari under Judicial Code § 240 brings here for review certain problems relating to the just compensation for tenants in condemnation proceedings to take their entire leaseholds when the United States had already taken over the lessors' interest in the property which the tenants occupy. Certiorari was granted to consider the holding of the circuit court of appeals, 147 F.2d 912, affirming the judgments of the district court, that evidence by a tenant of the costs of moving and reinstallation of equipment was admissible to establish the value of his leasehold under the rule announced in United States v. General Motors Corp., 323 U.S. 373. As this issue presents an important phase of the law of eminent domain,
While the condemnation proceedings were pending the owner of the property made arrangements with the United States which resulted in the dismissal of the action against the owner. There is no claim by the United States that this arrangement released it from liability to the tenants for its taking of their leaseholds. As the value of the use of the totality of property, which was taken, thus lost all meaning, the Government accepts a separate responsibility to compensate the tenants for any legally recognized interest which they may have in the property. See Duckett & Co. v. United States, 266 U.S. 149.
Although an earlier surrender might occur by the election of the United States, the estate sought did not necessarily expire until June 30, 1945. Prompt possession was required from the tenants and all of them were required by the order of possession to vacate the premises which they occupied within various short periods of which twenty days was the longest. The judgments stated the issue was the amount due the tenants for the taking of their occupancy of their premises and found in dollars the just compensation for the rights taken. These facts,
The lease of the Independent Pneumatic Tool Company included a clause for its termination on the Federal Government's entry into possession of the leased property for public use.
The Constitution and the statutes do not define the meaning of just compensation. But it has come to be recognized that just compensation is the value of the interest taken. This is not the value to the owner for his particular purposes or to the condemner for some special use but a so-called "market value." It is recognized that an owner often receives less than the value of the property to him but experience has shown that the rule is reasonably satisfactory. Since "market value" does not fluctuate with the needs of condemnor or condemnee but with general demand for the property, evidence of loss of
There was a complete taking of the entire interest of the tenants in the property. It has been urged that to measure just compensation for the taking of a leasehold by its value on the market or by the difference between a fair rental as of the time of taking and the agreed rent, is unfair. It is said the unfairness comes from the fact that there is really no market for leaseholds; that their value is something peculiarly personal to the lessee.
United States v. General Motors Corp. was a different case. In it only a portion of the lease was taken. We there said, p. 382:
There is a fundamental difference between the taking of a part of a lease and the taking of the whole lease. That difference is that the lessee must return to the leasehold at the end of the Government's use or at least the responsibility for the period of the lease which is not taken rests upon the lessee. This was brought out in the General Motors decision.
Upon a new trial, each tenant, other than the Independent Pneumatic Tool Company, should be permitted to prove damages for the condemnation of its rights for any remainder of its term which existed after its ouster by the order of possession but not costs of moving or relocation.
Reversed.
MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER and MR. JUSTICE JACKSON took no part in the consideration or decision of these cases.
MR. JUSTICE RUTLEDGE, concurring.
I agree with the result and with the Court's opinion, but with an important reservation which I think should be made expressly.
In United States v. General Motors Corp., 323 U.S. 373, the problem was stated as one of first impression, namely, to ascertain the just compensation the Fifth Amendment requires where, under power of eminent domain, temporary occupancy of part of a leased building is taken from a tenant holding under a long-term lease. The Court distinguished the case from others where the taking is of the owner's entire interest, whether a fee, a term of years or some other interest. Sensing the danger of applying to such a situation the strict rules limiting the amount of compensation in the latter types of cases, the Court said this would open a way for the Government to devise its condemnation, by chopping the owner's interest into bits, taking some and leaving him with others in suspended animation, so that the Amendment's guaranty might become an instrument of confiscation, not one of just compensation for what was taken. Such a procedure, the Court further stated, would be "neither the `taking' nor the `just compensation' the Fifth Amendment contemplates." 323 U.S. at 382.
These included (1) "what would be the market rental value of such a building on a lease by the long-term tenant to the temporary occupier," 323 U.S. at 382, which in addition to the bearing of the long-term rental as one element would include as other elements affecting "certainly and directly . . . the market price agreed upon by a tenant and a sublessee in such an extraordinary and unusual transaction," 323 U.S. at 383, (2) the reasonable cost of moving out the property stored on the premises and of preparing the space for occupancy by the subtenant, including the cost of labor, materials and transportation; and possibly also the cost of storage of goods removed against their sale or the cost of their return to the premises. In addition, for fixtures and permanent equipment destroyed or depreciated in value by reason of the taking, the Court held that the tenant whose lease was so cut up was entitled to compensation as for property taken, under the settled rule of cited authorities. 323 U.S. at 383.
Finally, in a footnote the Court pointed out that after judgment the Government had been allowed to amend its petition so as to include in the interest taken a yearly right of renewal, after which the trial court entered a new judgment for the original figure. Stating that these facts were not taken to alter the question presented here, which involved only the original taking for one year, the Court
Thus the Court applied a rule of compensation to the case of carving out a temporary or short-term use from a longer term very different from that generally applicable when the owner's entire interest is taken. The purpose and the basis for this were to give substance, in practical effect, to the Amendment's explicit mandate for payment of "just compensation" in cases of such extraordinary "takings" and to prevent those words from being whittled down by legalistic construction into means for practical confiscation.
In this case the Court has construed all of the takings as being of the tenant-owners' entire interests. This is clearly the case, on the record, with respect to all except Petty Motor Co. As to it I have doubt but I accept the Court's construction that the Government has condemned its entire leasehold interest in the premises and therefore must pay the full value of that term according to the usual rules in such cases.
My reservation, however, has to do with a possibility this record does not present as an accomplished fact in the case of the Petty Co., but does present as a contingency which might be realized and, in that event, would have a direct and inescapable relation to the ruling concerning the quantum of compensation in the General Motors case.
In that case the interest taken was for one year out of a twenty-year term which had six years to run from the time of the original condemnation. There was also added by the later amendment the right of renewal from year to year which, if exercised, might have extended the term taken to the end of the leasehold interest.
In this case a converse sort of taking is presented by the Petty Motor situation. That company held a lease expiring October 31, 1943, with an option for an additional
It is this option which I think makes dubious the ruling that all of the Petty Motor Company's interest was "taken." In my opinion it was only "taken" contingently. For, if the option is valid, quite obviously the Government was free to surrender, by giving notice, on June 30, 1943, in which event Petty's lease would have been in force until the following October 31 in any event, or on June 30, 1944, in which case Petty's lease might have continued in force until October 31, 1944. In either event the case would have fallen squarely within the General Motors situation and ruling.
In my opinion that ruling and the requirement of paying compensation according to the measure it prescribes apply whether the Government carves out part of the tenant-owner's term by one method of stating what it takes or another. That is, for this purpose, it makes no difference whether the Government "takes" the temporary use for part of the term but adds to this a right of renewal periodically which if exercised will extend the term taken beyond the term of the lease; or, on the other hand, purports to take a term which extends beyond that of the leasehold interest, but reserves the right to cut this down periodically so that in fact it may surrender the premises before the leasehold expires and thus carve out of it a shorter term, just as in the General Motors taking.
Whether the chopping up is accomplished one way or the other, the effects for the owner are the same, the "taking" is in substance the same, and the compensation
This question I think sufficiently important to be explicitly reserved for decision when a case arises requiring application of the General Motors rule to such a situation. I do not understand the Court to rule to the contrary, since there is no showing on this record that the Government has exercised its option. I therefore concur in the decision as it is rendered upon the record which has been presented.
FootNotes
"If the whole or any part of the demised premises shall be taken by Federal, State, county, city, or other authority for public use, or under any statute, or by right of eminent domain, then when possession shall be taken thereunder of said premises, or any part thereof, the term hereby granted and all rights of the Lessee hereunder shall immediately cease and terminate, and the Lessee shall not be entitled to any part of any award that may be made for such taking, nor to any damages therefor except that the rent shall be adjusted as of the date of such termination of the Lease."
"The question posed in this case then is, shall a different measure of compensation apply where that which is taken is a right of temporary occupancy of a building equipped for the condemnee's business, filled with his commodities, and presumably to be reoccupied and used, as before, to the end of the lease term on the termination of the Government's use?"
"Some of the elements which would certainly and directly affect the market price agreed upon by a tenant and a sublessee in such an extraordinary and unusual transaction would be the reasonable cost of moving out the property stored and preparing the space for occupancy by the subtenant. That cost would include labor, materials, and transportation. And it might also include the storage of goods against their sale or the cost of their return to the leased premises. Such items may be proved, not as independent items of damage but to aid in the determination of what would be the usual — the market — price which would be asked and paid for such temporary occupancy of the building then in use under a long-term lease."
"It appeared that the owners had been in the habit of renewing the petitioners' lease from time to time, and an attempt was made to give this fact the aspect of an English customary tenant right. The evidence merely showed that the landlords and the tenants were mutually satisfied and were likely to keep on together. It added nothing except by way of corroboration to the testimony that they both intended to keep on. Changeable intentions are not an interest in land, and although no doubt such intentions may have added practically to the value of the petitioners' holding, they could not be taken into account in determining what the respondent should pay. They added nothing to the tenants' legal rights, and legal rights are all that must be paid for. Even if such intentions added to the saleable value of the lease, the addition would represent a speculation on a chance, not a legal right. The court was right in excluding expert evidence as to an increase in value from that source."
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