Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation and Stauffer Chemical Company v. United States

On October 13, 1952, the United States of America, appellee herein, filed a complaint in condemnation to acquire over 6900 acres of land for military purposes in connection with Lake Mead Base, Nevada. The Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation and Stauffer Chemical Company, appellants herein, owned certain valid mining claims which were in the general vicinity of the property described in the condemnation action, but which mining claims were not acquired in said proceeding. In 1921 the predecessors of appellants constructed a road about 26 miles in length from Stauffer’s mining claims to a railroad siding. Fibreboard’s mining claims were approximately ten miles from the railroad siding. About seven miles of this access road were within the area described in the complaint in condemnation. The question first arose as to whether appellants had any compensable property interest in the access road included within the area condemned. A separate trial was had in the United States District Court for Nevada to determine this question, and that court ruled that appellants did have a compensable property interest in the access roads condemned by the United States and that such action…