Real Estate & Property Law

Airport pays for delay

By Alan Ackerman

The Morning Call

The authority that runs Lehigh Valley International Airport now owes more than $24 million for 632 acres it took more than a decade ago from a developer that planned to build homes and a golf course, a Lehigh County judge has ruled.

A jury in March decided that the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority owed WBF Associates $10.4 million for gobbling up the land in 1996. The airport has made only one payment to the company -- $3.15 million on Nov. 2, 2000, according to court records.

So, Judge Carol K. McGinley this month ordered the authority to pay additional delay damages and mortgage interest totaling $16.3 million.

It doesn't stop there. Interest continues to accrue on the award each day until it's paid off. According to McGinley's order, the interest on the money owed for the mortgage is $1,463 per day...

It is amazing that the owner has the fortitude to wait over a decade to get paid. The process of delay can be utilized by a governmental agency to 'wear the owner down', a process completely compromising the constitutional requirement that Just Compensation is to be paid upon the taking of property.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on October 01, 2008 (boomark / email).