Posted on 06/06/2008 10:55:27 PM PDT by marsh2
The compensatory ruling from the Court of Claims in the Fifth Amendment Takings case of grazer Wayne Hage was finaly handed down after 17 years. Hage's heirs were awarded $4,220,431.20 plus interest from time of Takings plus attorney costs. Property takings on so called federal land included: improvements of springs and wells; water use rights; roads; fences; irrigation ditches. Takings for cattle impoundment and taking of the "entire ranch" were denied.
The 18 page ruling should be posted on the Stewards of the Range website soon. https://www.stewards.us/
Just about exactly two years too late for Wayne Hage himself, but his heirs will be happy.
I had the pleasure of meeting both Wayne Hage and Helen Chenoweth in 2005. Two real patriots who put everything on the line for what was and is right.
As you said, two years too late for both, but the organization that they helped build has been a powerful defender of property rights, especially here in TX.
of interest?
BTT
I thought he had won the case several years before his death, and this ruling was about the monetary damages.
As I recall, he traveled and lectured to other lease holders on perfecting their water rights.
Big victory for individual rights and our rights in our private property.
This case can be used against the criminal fascist bureaucrats when they try to steal property. That fascist abomination called the EPA still exists and we’ll need rulings like this to fight these Marxists.
Yes.
Bruce Babbitt is spinning like a top.
Well, so is his former deputy Secretary of Interior, our current Lt. Governor, none other than John Garamendi!!!
Even so, justice delayed IS JUSTICE DENIED!!! (17 years delay is criminal)
Now the political pendulum in this once great country seems to be reversing back toward where it was at the bi-centenial with Nixon having just signed the ESA, followed by another socialist idiot like Carter!!!
I certainly hope that after I'm dead and gone, the pendulum is reversing once again for the benefit of my heirs!!!
“Finaly, justice is served.”
Too bad the Hage’s weren’t here to see it. Typical though. In 1891 the government took the Cherokee outlet in Oklahoma (Indian Territory) (land mass the size of Belgium) from the Cherokees. In 1961 the Court of appeals paid them for it. Seldom does justice serve those who were actually wronged.
The case establishing the private split estate rights on the so called “public” or federal lands was settled a few years ago. This is the monetization and Fifth Amendment takings claim decision. It means that they are not property rights in name only. It means that USFS and BLM decisions reagrding grazers that ignore the existence of these valuable property rights and the right to their continued use and enjoyment brings substantial monetary penalties upon the federal government.
When environmentalists/back packers/elk and wild horse devotees/ and bicyclists pressure federal land management agencies to remove livestock grazing, (as they are currently doing in California,) the USFS can’t just buckle and walk away. There are big monetary consequences for ignoring the longstanding property rights of many of these grazers.
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