Landowners Eminent Domain
Few people understand the awesome power of the government to condemn private property under eminent domain – until they are notified that their property is being taken.
In recent years, more and more Mississippi landowners have found themselves facing the often devastating prospect of losing all or part of their land through eminent domain. Representation of landowners effected by eminent domain is a significant area of practice of Smith, Phillips, Mitchell, Scott & Nowak.
Partner Paul R. Scott has twenty years experience handling eminent domain cases. He has successfully represented property owners in various Mississippi venues in cases involving acquisitions for road and highway construction, airport expansions, power line construction and other uses. Scott is the Mississippi member of Owners' Counsel of America, a national association of the leading eminent domain attorneys from each state. For more information about Owners' Counsel of America, click here:
Featured Case
A DeSoto County Jury in Hernando, Mississippi returned a verdict of $2.3 Million in favor of Smith Phillips client, Highland Development LLC, in an eminent domain case filed by the Mississippi Transportation Commission in March of 2000. The case, handled by Paul Scott of the Hernando office of Smith, Phillips, Mitchell, Scott & Nowak, arose from the taking of a portion of Blue Lake Springs Subdivision, a 462 acre residential subdivision in western DeSoto County featuring home sites on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi Delta and a 100 acre spring-fed lake.
The Mississippi Transportation Commission is building an interstate grade highway through the property that will connect the casino destinations in adjoining Tunica County to Interstate 55. When completed the highway will become part of the new Interstate 69 which is planned to extend from Port Huron, Michigan to the lower Rio Grande Valley. When the Commission offered the owners less than $200,000 as just compensation, they retained partner Paul Scott of Smith, Phillips, Mitchell, Scott & Nowak to represent them in their eminent domain case. The Mississippi Transportation Commission argued that just compensation to the land owners was $197,775. The expert appraiser employed by Smith Phillips testified that just compensation was $2,300,000 taking into account not only the 37.3 acres taken but also the damage done to the remainder of the property. After a week long trial, a DeSoto County jury agreed that Highland Development was damaged and returned a verdict on January 12, 2001, of $2.3 million —— the full amount sought by Smith Phillips partner Scott and the landowners.