United States v. 312.50 Acres of Land, More or Less, Situated in Prince William County, Commonwealth of Virginia and Annie M. Davis

For the first time in this circuit, we are called upon to consider the application of the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) to a land condemnation case. We hold that the district court correctly denied an award under the Act.

I

In a previous appeal, we deemed “merit-less” the government’s contention that a contract of sale for comparable land at a price of $15,000 per acre was inadmissible as evidence of value of the subject property when the contract was executed approximately three months before the condemnation case of the subject property was tried. As a result of the admission of that…