The Supreme Court ruled March 8, 2022 that the jury’s verdict of $73,350 against the Okay Public Works Authority (OPWA) will stand effective and the landowner will be compensated.

Ritchie Rock & Atwood represented River Valley Mobile Home Community in this suit against the OPWA for the commission of an inverse condemnation taking and damaging of property. The OPWA alleged that it had the legal right, and was doing the landowner a favor by unilaterally moving into the small family owned mobile home park business and digging up their water and sewer lines and replacing them as part of a larger community water and sewer project. Problem was, that the OPWA and its contractor failed to get any easements to do the project, refused to stop digging when requested to do so by the owners, and did not properly perform the work which resulted in sewer lines being improperly installed such that it caused sewage backups in the homes. A classic case of “Big Brother”, the government, lacking regard for private property rights of the citizens.

At trial, after Ritchie Rock & Atwood, filed suit on behalf of the landowner the government tried a very unique argument. The government argued that it could not be sued for inverse condemnation because the OPWA, a public trust, lacked the statutory authority to taken the property by the power of eminent domain. The government argued that if it didn’t have the power to take property, then it could not be sued for taking property by inverse condemnation. It argued that it had the power to condemn property for water lines but not for sewer lines. After the jury found against OPWA, the OPWA appealed the case. The appeal was assigned to the Court of Civil Appeals and the COCA ruled in favor of the government. Ritchie Rock & Atwood applied for a review of the COCA decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Ritchie Rock & Atwood argued on appeal that such a reading of the law created a situation in which the toilet could be filled but could not be flushed and was absolutely an incorrect and strained reading of the law. The Supreme Court agreed with Ritchie, Rock & Atwood, reversed the decision of the Civil Court of Appeals and upheld the landowner’s judgment against the government.