Lewis v. United States. Richmond Inv. Co. v. United States

In 1942 the United States, acting through the Attorney General, sought to acquire by eminent domain the fee simple’title to certain parcels of land owned by appellants herein. The owners of the several parcels, sought to- be acquired, resisted the taking and, in effect, posed the following problem:

The compensation for the taking was claimed to be neither just nor reasonable. The trial court held the authority for the taking ample, and ordered awards for the owners in the sums found by the juries as just compensation. The landowners appealed.

Congress, under the Lanham Act, has delegated wide authority to the Federal Works Administrator to condemn lands for use in carrying out the directives of the Act In Section 1(a) the Administrator is given power to acquire land by “purchase * * * or condemnation”. No distinction is made in the Act between what may be purchased and what may be condemned. And it now is well established that the government’s power to condemn is coextensive with its power to purchase. United States ex rel. Tennessee Valley Authority v. Welch, 1946, 327 U.S. 546, 554 , 66 S.Ct. 715 , 90 L.Ed. 843 ; Poison Logging Co. v. United States, 9 Cir., 1947, 160 F.2d 712,…