Facts

This case involved two inverse condemnation claims involving defendant, city of Oakland.

During an El Nino winter storm in February 1998, the city of Oakland installed a pipeline across J.W. and Barbara Silveira's Tunnel Road property without their consent in order to prevent collapse of the road and a landslide on plaintiffs' property. When the Silveiras applied for approval to subdivide the property in 2002, the city informed them it could not be developed unless the pipe was removed. Plaintiff filed this lawsuit against the city in August 2003.

The city claimed that plaintiffs' inverse claim was barred by the statute of limitations and that the city had acquired a prescriptive easement for the pipe. The court rejected the city's defenses and found the installation and existence of the pipe constituted a compensable taking. Just compensation was then tried to the jury.

On Exeter Drive, discharge from a city pipe during a severe storm caused a landslide on undeveloped property. Over three years after the action was filed, the city made repairs that stabilized the property. However, the Silveiras still argued they were entitled to compensation for the time in which the property was rendered unstable due to the landslide. The city claimed the Silveiras were not entitled to damages because they had not been deprived of any use of the property during the time between the landslide and when the damage was repaired. The trial court determined a compensable taking occurred.

During the just compensation portion of the jury trial, plaintiffs claimed the property lost fair market value during the period where the land was damaged and it was measured by the discounted value of the property over that time. The city claimed plaintiffs sustained no damage because the property had been repaired.

Settlement Discussions

Prior to trial, plaintiffs rejected the city's offer to remove the pipe on Tunnel Road, to construct a dissipater and to return the property to its condition before installation of the pipe.

Damages

Plaintiffs claimed that the Tunnel Road property had no value because of the city's construction of the pipe and claimed damages of $1,250,000 on Tunnel Road and $60,000 in damages on Exeter Drive.

Result

The court found compensable takings on both properties before the just compensation was tried to the jury. Before presentation of closing arguments to the jury, the parties agreed to a settlement whereby the city would pay $2 million in exchange for transfer of the Tunnel Road property.