B. [§ 6.8] Takings and Inverse Condemnation

• Jurisdiction: Maryland

B. [§ 6.8] Takings and Inverse Condemnation

An action to quiet title may be maintained against public officials or a state agency where it is alleged that a state agency or its officials have taken private property without just compensation. See Dep't of Natural Res. v. Welsh, 308 Md. 54, 65, 521 A.2d 313, 318 (1986). Alternatively, where interference by the government constitutes a taking but no formal eminent domain proceedings have been instituted to pay the landowner just compensation pursuant to Md. Const. art III, § 40, the landowner may institute a claim for inverse condemnation. See Reichs Ford Rd. Joint Venture v. State Rds. Comm'n, 388 Md. 500, 511, 880 A.2d 307, 313 (2005).

Inverse condemnation is a taking without just compensation. Litz v. Md. Dep't of Env't, 446 Md. 254, 266, 131 A.3d 923, 930 (2016). In Litz, the Court explained that an inverse condemnation claim "is characterized as "a shorthand description of the manner in which a landowner recovers just compensation for a taking of his property when condemnation proceedings have not been instituted. Essentially a plaintiff may 'recover the value of property which has been taken in fact by the governmental defendant, even though no formal...