## Facts

- Muscatine County constructed a highway improvement consisting of a causeway and bridge crossing the Cedar River.
- The County acquired right-of-way in 1963; substantial work was completed by 1965 and fully completed by 1969.
- Major floods occurred in 1965 and again in 1969.
- Plaintiffs owned five parcels in the Cedar River floodplain that had experienced flooding before construction.
- Plaintiffs alleged the causeway and bridge projected into the river, obstructed flow, and caused substantially greater flooding on their land.
- The County asserted plaintiffs’ land had long been subject to flooding and the project imposed no additional burden.
- All witnesses agreed the structure necessarily impeded the river’s free flow; the dispute was the extent of obstruction and whether resulting harm was more than nominal.

## Issues

1. Whether a public causeway and bridge that substantially increases flooding on already flood-prone private land constitutes a compensable taking or damaging under the Iowa Constitution.
2. Whether uncertainty about timing and severity of future floods makes the claimed injury too speculative to support mandamus.
3. Whether mandamus is an available remedy to compel the County to institute condemnation proceedings to determine just compensation.

## Decision

- The Iowa Supreme Court reversed the judgment for the County and remanded with directions to issue a writ of mandamus.
- The court held that the project’s obstruction of the river, causing inevitable and substantial increased flooding, constituted a compensable taking or damaging.
- The court rejected the view that future flood damages were too speculative where increased flooding and substantial interference were established.
- Mandamus was held proper to compel condemnation proceedings so compensation could be determined.

## Legal Principles

- A compensable taking or damaging can occur without physical appropriation of title when government action substantially interferes with the use and enjoyment of private property.
- Government-induced flooding may be compensable when a public improvement inevitably and substantially increases the degree of flooding on private land, even if the land previously flooded.
- Intermittent flooding can constitute a permanent, substantial interference when it imposes a continuing burden or servitude on the property’s beneficial use.
- Uncertainty about when future floods will occur or their precise magnitude does not bar relief when the public improvement has created a present, substantial interference.
- Mandamus may be used to compel a governmental entity to commence condemnation proceedings when property has been taken or damaged for public use without prior compensation.

## Conclusion

The court held that a county highway improvement that materially increased floodwaters on floodplain property imposed a compensable taking or damaging under the Iowa Constitution and that landowners could obtain mandamus compelling the county to begin condemnation proceedings to determine and pay just compensation.


Phelps v. Bd. of Supervisors of Cnty. of Muscatine, 211 N.W.2d 274 (Iowa 1973)