United States v. Kansas City Life Insurance

Background

An insurance company owned 1,710 acres of Missouri farmland next to Dardenne Creek, a nonnavigable tributary about one and one-half miles from the Mississippi. The United States built and operated Lock and Dam No. 26, which raised the Mississippi and the creek to a continuous pool at the river’s ordinary high-water level (about 420.4 feet). That permanent rise raised the underground water table and blocked drainage, destroying the agricultural value of land lying a few feet above high-water and reducing the land’s market value by $22,519.60. The company sued for compensation and won in the Court of Claims; the United States appealed to the Supreme Court.

Reasoning

The Court asked whether the federal navigation power lets the Government change a navigable river’s level without paying for harm off the riverbed, and whether the resulting destruction of farm value is a taking. The Court said the federal navigation servitude covers the river bed up to ordinary high-water mark but does not reach fast land beyond it. Because the raised water percolated under and permanently soaked the farm, interfering with drainage, the Court treated that invasion as a taking and affirmed the award of just compensation.

Real world impact

Landowners with property above a navigable river’s high-water mark can recover compensation when federal river projects permanently invade their land by raising the water table or blocking drainage. Federal navigation projects can still change riverbeds without payment, but not when they cause permanent subsurface invasion of nearby private land. This decision may affect future claims by owners harmed by river control projects.

Dissents or concurrances

Justices Douglas and Minton dissented, arguing owners adjacent to tributaries should expect river level changes and that, under Missouri law, surface and subsurface drainage rights may not be compensable; they would have denied recovery.