State law should be used to determine how much compensation landowners are due when their property is seized through eminent domain by a private company under the Natural Gas Act, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that, since the federal NGA does not outline what constitutes “just compensation” in a condemnation action by a private company, courts should look to state law. The court’s precedential ruling, issued Tuesday in a case captioned Tennessee Gas Pipeline v. Permanent Easement for 7.053 Acres, applied Pennsylvania law, which allowed the landowners to receive nearly $1 million in additional compensation.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]