David Valdez—HUD | New Orleans, Louisiana | https://picryl.com/media/president-george-w-bush-and-secretary-alphonso-jackson-on-tour-of-river-garden-62b684 | No known copyright restrictions | https://catalog.archives.gov/
The Louisiana state Constitution states that landowners who lose property from eminent domain must be fully compensated, and a ruling from the Supreme Court now says that compensation includes paying for the landowner’s attorney and legal fees.
The ruling comes from a dispute over the Bayou Bridge Pipeline being built through landowners’ property. In 2018 the company was sued for building the 163-mile pipeline through a 38-acre piece of land in St. Martin Parish without paying landowners compensation for the land taken. Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC, the company building the pipeline, has already paid around $30,000 in damages to landowners and now must pay more money to landowners to cover legal fees.
This ruling is the first time the state’s high court has held that the Constitution permits litigation and attorney costs as an element of just compensation to landowners in eminent domain proceedings.