United States v. Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. (339 U.S. 261)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 17, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 339 U.S. 261 · 70 S. Ct. 644
- Decided
- April 17, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Frankfurter
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. On February 18, 1943, the United States filed a petition in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts to condemn certain land and buildings in Springfield, Massachusetts, for use by the Army for a term initially ending June 30, 1943, with a right to renew for additional yearly periods during the existing national emergency, at the election of the Secretary of War. On the same day the District Court authorized the United States to take immediate possession. The respondent, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, was lessee of a portion of the condemned property, using it as a warehouse, under a lease dated January 19, 1942, for a term expiring on October 31, 1944. Respondent, in order to comply with the District Court’s order of immediate possession, incurred expenses for the removal of its personal property. Subsequently, the Secretary of War exercised his right of renewal and extended the Government’s occupancy for two additional yearly periods ending on June 30, 1945. Thus, although the occupancy taken by the United States was initially for a period less than the remainder of respondent’s term, the renewals eventually exhausted respondent’s leasehold. At the time of the initial taking as well as upon each yearly extension, sums were deposited into the District Court as estimated…
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