ELR Citation: ELR 20082
No(s). 05-5031 (Fed. Cir. May 2, 2006)

The court reverses the dismissal of the Louisiana Fish & Game Preserve Commission's takings claim against the United States in a case involving a conflict between the state commission's duty to maintain the Northwest Fish and Game Preserve and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (the Corps') responsibility to maintain year-round riparian navigation along the Red River. The Commission argued that the Corps' Red River navigation project prevented it from being able to draw down the level of Louisiana’s Black Lake. Accordingly, the Commission could not control the growth of vegetation in the lake, thereby rendering the northern part of the lake inaccessible, unmanageable, and virtually useless. The lower court dismissed the case, holding that the takings claim accrued no later than December 1994 at which time the Commission knew or should have known that damage would occur due to a rise in water levels. Because the claim was filed in 2001, the six-year statute-of-limitations process expired. But when damages from a taking emerge gradually, a litigant may postpone a suit for a taking until "the situation becomes stabilized." Here, the growth of natural vegetation was a slow process, and the growth and resulting harm had not stabilized until at least 1997. The takings claim, therefore, is not time barred.