Westchester County Park Commission v. United States

FRANK, Circuit Judge.

1. Under the Fifth Amendment, the owner of land taken by condemnation is entitled to “just compensation.” The key notion is indemnity, measured in money, for the owner’s loss of the condemned property. In an effort to definitize this notion, it has been said that it requires the payment of a sum equal to the “value” of the property taken. But if “just compensation” is a baffling indefinite concept, “value” is no loss so. To mouth it is not to answer but to ask a question. In the condemnation cases, the courts, trying to contrive a practical standard,- have adopted the…