United States v. 0.84 Acres of Land

In order to facilitate its project in the Central Valley of California, the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior of the United States found it necessary to construct high voltage electric transmission wires to bring electric power into the Valley. The Bureau’s transmission lines at one point cross over and above the canal of the defendant East Contra Costa Irrigation District in the County of Contra Costa and over a span of the District’s electric distribution lines. Pursuant to statutory authority, 1 the Secretary of the Interior, on behalf of the United States, on January *829 29, 1951 filed in this court its Declaration, whereby it took the right and privilege of maintaining the Bureau’s transmission lines at right angles across the District’s property, subject to all existing rights of way of the District for its canals, ditches, electric transmission lines, etc. Coincidentally the United States filed a complaint in condemnation. In the Declaration, the value of the privilege or right taken was stated to be $1. It amounted to no more than an air passage over the District’s canal, ditches and electric lines. The District, in its answer, alleged that the right…