The U.S. Supreme Court will soon consider the third of several petitions for certiorari asking it to review a question which has split the lower federal courts: whether district courts have the power under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to issue preliminary injunctions in takings under the Natural Gas Act which allow private pipeline condemnors to obtain immediate possession of property, even though Congress has withheld the federal “quick take” power in the NGA. The Third, Fourth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits have concluded that simply because Congress did not delegate to private pipeline condemnors the quick take authority—the power to obtain immediate title and possession of condemned property upon a deposit of estimated compensation—neither did it withhold from federal courts their usual equitable powers to issue injunctions. The Seventh Circuit concluded otherwise: that because private pipeline condemnors were not delegated the quick take power in the NGA, possession must wait until the court adjudicates the final compensation owed, and the pipeline condemnor exercises its option and makes that payment. This Term, the Court declined to review two of the three petitions, but the issue is one that is not going away.
Featuring:
Chris Johns, Partner, Johns & Counsel PLLC
Jeffrey A. Simmons, Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
Moderator: Robert H. Thomas, Director, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert