Washington, (D.C.) – A federal judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has issued a final decision awarding at least $34.3 million to former Kentucky landowners whose farms were taken during World War II for a military training facility, Camp Breckinridge. When the federal government condemned the land it paid only for the surface rights, not for the underlying mineral rights (to oil, gas, and coal), promising to resell the property back to the original owners after WWII was over. Instead of selling the land back, the federal government kept it, and sold off the mineral rights to third parties. As the judge pointed out in her decision, full damages in this case will be close to $127 million, or the value of the mineral rights underlying the farm land, which the federal government later sold, profiting handsomely.
“The original landowners are among the many Americans whose sacrifices and courage brought us successfully through WWII, a generation often referred to as the ‘greatest generation,’” said Nancie Marzulla, lead counsel for the Kentucky Landowners. “Unfortunately, the federal government hasn’t given these former landowners the greatest treatment. They lost their homes and farms (their livelihoods), in order to help our nation train soldiers to win WWII. It is shameful that the federal government failed to sell their farms back to them, and has refused to compensate them for decades.”
The parties engaged in settlement discussions mediated by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor last year. When those negotiations failed, the parties asked the trial judge to enter a final decision. The case involves the families of over 1,000 former landowners. The case was filed as a Congressional Reference. It was referred to the Court of Federal Claims, located in Washington, D.C., from Congress in 1993 to determine appropriate damages. The trial judge’s decision must still be approved by a three-judge panel on the court before it sent to Congress, which can decide whether to appropriate all or some part of the $127 million recommendation.
