Section 10.8 Flooding or Threat of Flooding

• Library: Eminent Domain 3rd Edition 2013

Flooding of land is compensable under eminent domain provisions.

City of Yuma v. Lattie, 117 Ariz. 280, 572 P.2d 108 (App. 1977)

This is so, even if the flooding is temporary in duration.

Arkansas Game & Fish Comm’n v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 133 S. Ct. 511, 184 L. Ed. 2d 417 (2012)

Public entities may be held liable in inverse eminent domain when they collect surface water by an artificial channel or in large quantities, and pour it, in a body, upon the land of a private person to his injury.

State v. Leeson, 84 Ariz. 44, 323 P.2d 692 (1958)

Maricopa County Mun. W.C.D. No. 1 v. Warford, 69 Ariz. 1, 206 P.2d 1168 (1949) (district cannot take a drainage easement without compensation therefor)

Clausen v. Salt River Valley Water Users’ Ass’n, 59 Ariz. 71, 123 P.2d 172 (1942) (if construction of the spillway has reduced the value of plaintiff’s land, the damage has already occurred; the owner does not need to wait for a flood before bringing an inverse action)

State ex rel. LaPrade v. Carrow, 57 Ariz. 429, 114 P.2d 891 (1941) (the obstruction of a dry wash due to highway construction which resulted in flooding of defendants’ premises...