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ICSC Legal Database - CasesMonday, February 22, 1999 05:01 PM

Case Index:
00110

Citation:
Adams v. Bradshaw, 135 N.H. 7, 599 A.2d 481 (N.H. 1991), cert denied 112 S.Ct. 1560; 118 L.Ed.2d 208

(1992).

Issue:
Whether town's discontinuance of sewer system constitutes inverse condemnation of township's village

residents' property requiring just compensation.

Facts:
The defendant, Town of Monroe built and operated a sewer system which had served approximately 50 residents

 of its village area since 1932. The system collected raw sewage and spewed the untreated waste into the

Connecticut River. In 1971, the Town established a capital reserve fund to spend on constructing a sewage

disposal unit. In March 1988, faced with expiration of its State and Federal permits to pollute the river, the Town

voted to apply its capital reserve fund to designing individual, subsurface disposal systems for village properties.

The village residents, plaintiffs, filed suit against the Town and its selectmen individually. Their petition for

declaratory judgment asserted a vested property right in the sewer system and declared illegal the Town's plans

 to discontinue the system. The Town voted to abandon the sewer system before the trial court issued its

decision. The trial court subsequently held that the selectmen had authority to discontinue the system, but that

iscontinuance of the system constituted inverse condemnation. The Town and the residents both appealed the

trial court's ruling.

Holding:
Reversed. The Town had statutory authority to determine that the sewer system should be discontinued. The

Town owned the system and, therefore, could decide to dispose of it. Village residents merely had a license to

use the sewer. Generally, the right given to connect to a sewer system is a revocable license. Thus, the village

residents did not have a vested property interest in the sewer. The Town could revoke their licenses. Relying on

persuasive authority from other jurisdictions, the court found that without a property right, there can be no

taking. Therefore, the court held that discontinuance did not constitute inverse condemnation of the sewer

system.

Publication:
Legal Update

Date:
Winter 1992

Classification 1:
Condemnation/Eminent Domain

Classification 2:

Classification 3:

00110 - Legal Update - Winter 1992