Litigation results in payments for southeast SD landowners along rail-to-trail route

Litigation results in payments for southeast SD landowners along rail-to-trail route

Seven landowners in Bon Homme and Charles Mix counties will receive a total of nearly $128,000 from the federal government after the U.S. Court of Federal Claims found their land was taken without compensation to make way for a proposed hiking and biking trail. The ruling stems from a claim for compensation filed under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, which requires just compensation when private property is taken for public use, a process …