Facts
- Allegheny County, Pennsylvania owned and operated the Greater Pittsburgh Airport, developed with federal assistance under the federal airport program.
- Federal aviation authorities established approach patterns requiring aircraft to fly regularly and frequently at very low altitudes over Thomas N. Griggs’s residential property.
- The repeated overflights caused severe noise, vibrations, and safety concerns, forcing Griggs and his family to leave their home.
- Griggs claimed the overflights effectively imposed an air easement over his property, rendering it unsuitable for residential use.
Issues
- Whether repeated, low-altitude overflights required by airport approach patterns constituted a taking of an air easement requiring just compensation under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- If a taking occurred, whether the responsible party was the County as airport owner/operator, rather than the United States or airlines acting under federal regulation.
Decision
- The Supreme Court reversed the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
- The Court held that the County had taken an air easement over Griggs’s property and owed just compensation under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- The Court rejected the argument that federal control of airspace or federally prescribed flight patterns shifted takings liability away from the County.
Legal Principles
- Repeated, low-altitude aircraft overflights that directly and substantially interfere with the use and enjoyment of land can constitute a compensable taking of an air easement.
- The Just Compensation requirement applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.
- When a local government chooses the airport’s location and operates it in a manner that necessitates damaging approach-path overflights, that airport proprietor is the “taker” responsible for compensation, even if federal regulators set flight patterns and standards.
Conclusion
The Court held that frequent, low-altitude overflights associated with an airport’s approach path may amount to a taking of an air easement, and that the local governmental entity owning and operating the airport must pay just compensation for the resulting invasion of nearby private property.