When Rocky Prestangen and his neighboring ranch owners in North Dakota were told by a natural gas pipeline company with eminent domain power that it wanted their land, they knew the initial price offered was way too low. North Dakota’s prairie has been a hotbed of oil and natural gas development for years. And oil companies don’t have the power of eminent domain to build their pipelines. They have to find willing sellers, which means Rocky and his neighbors had a really good sense of what the going rate was for pipeline easements.
But the pipeline company insisted that their government power also came with that steep discount. So the ranchers fought back in court. The court determined that the company had to pay a market price for the land.
But the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the company did not have to pay the ranchers’ legal fees, which were hundreds of thousands of dollars. This decision puts the 8th Circuit out on a legal island. Everywhere else in the country, the courts look to state law to determine how much money property owners deserve and North Dakota law says the ranchers should get their fees paid for.
Property owners are now stuck in a Catch-22: accept a low-ball offer for their property or fight for a fair price out of their own pocket. That’s not just unfair—it’s illegal, and that’s why the Institute for Justice is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up their case and ensure that property owners don’t get stiffed when the government comes for their land.
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Eminent Domain | Private Property
Leonard Hoffmann v. WBI Energy Transmission
North Dakota ranchers fought a pipeline company with eminent domain power for the fair value of their land. But an appeals court said the company did not have to pay the ranchers' attorney fees. That…