United States v. 103.38 Acres of Land

BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge.

This case requires us to review the methods of property valuation which may properly serve as the basis of an award in federal eminent domain proceedings. Specifically, we must examine the types of evidence the trier of fact should consider in determining the value of condemned mineral-bearing property.

We are concerned with a 103-acre tract of unimproved land, purchased by appellants Frank and Doris Oldfield in 1968. The property, located in eastern Kentucky, overlies a portion of the Van Lear coal seam, an important source of high quality, low sulphur…