Louis Schneider v. County of San Diego, and Reybro, Inc., a California Corporation, Dba, Quality Auto Recycling

Louis Schneider appeals the district court’s order awarding prejudgment interest and refusing to award nominal damages. After Schneider successfully sued the County of San Diego and Gregory Reynolds, dba Reybro, Inc. (collectively, the “County”) for violation of the Takings and Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , the district court awarded Schneider “prejudgment interest” to compensate him for the delay in payment of just compensation for the takings. It refused to award nominal damages for Schneider’s due process claim.

We must decide whether Schneider is entitled to prejudgment interest as part of the constitutionally required “just compensation” for his property or whether, as the County contends, he is merely entitled to damages for delay of payment. Like the district court, we conclude that where, as here, the property owner was not compensated until long after the taking, “just compensation” requires an award of prejudgment interest. However, unlike the district court, we conclude that the amount of prejudgment interest is appropriately calculated in a manner that will ensure that the property owner receives the constitutionally mandated…

Dissenting from Part II. of the Opinion:

I agree that Schneider is entitled to both nominal damages on his due process claim and prejudgment interest on his § 1983 claim. I dissent only from the Court’s ill-advised departure from our applicable precedent. The Court holds, for the first time, that in calculating prejudgment interest in certain § 1983 “takings actions,” a district court can no longer rely solely on the easily determined and simply applied 52 week Treasury Bill rate applicable to other tort judgments awarded by federal courts. Because the Court’s opinion reaches out to decide this issue by drawing a dubious distinction between § 1983 claims seeking just compensation and other § 1983 tort claims that was neither presented by the parties, nor considered by the district court, I respectfully dissent.

As the Supreme Court has recognized, actions brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 sound in tort and are to be evaluated by the courts in light of the principles of tort liability:

City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd., 526 U.S. 687, 709 , 119 S.Ct. 1624 , 143 L.Ed.2d 882 (1999) (quotations omitted). Our opinion appears to agree that Schneider’s § 1983 claim for…

285 F.3d 784 Louis SCHNEIDER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO, and Reybro, Inc., a California corporation, dba, Quality Auto Recycling, Defendants-Appellees. No. 00-55709. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted June 12, 2001. Filed March 21, 2002. COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED Louise E. Goebel, San Diego, CA, and Kenneth Chesebro, Cambridge, MA, for the plaintiff-appellant. John J. Sansone and Morris G. Hill, County of San Diego, San Diego, CA, for the defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California; Marilyn L. Huff, Chief Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-90-1738-H. Before: WARDLAW, PAEZ and TALLMAN, Circuit Judges. WARDLAW, Circuit Judge. 1 Louis Schneider appeals the district court's order awarding prejudgment interest and refusing to award nominal damages. After Schneider successfully sued the County of San Diego and Gregory Reynolds, dba Reybro, Inc. (collectively, the "County") for violation of the Takings and Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , the district court awarded Schneider "prejudgment interest" to compensate…