The Government Can’t Pay You With An IOU

The Fifth Amendment says that when the government takes your property, it must pay you “just compensation.” But what does that mean? In an alarming trend, some states think just compensation means they can leave property owners with an IOU that they can never cash in. 

In fact, an IOU is all the town of Okay, Oklahoma, left Mike and Melisa Robinson with after it took and damaged their property—to the tune of $73,350. 

The Robinsons own and operate a mobile home community in Okay, where they provide safe, clean, and affordable homes for families to rent. One day, Melisa discovered a nightmare on their property: Without any authorization (or even notice), the town was digging up private sewer lines in the community. As it turned out, the town had a secret plan to turn the Robinsons’ private pipes into public ones.

In doing so, the town caused massive damage. Besides just the digging itself, the town clipped power lines, causing power outages and appliances to blow out in tenants’ homes. Even worse, the town didn’t grade the pipes correctly. This meant that toilets wouldn’t flush, showers wouldn’t drain, and sewage was everywhere. It was uninhabitable. The Robinsons needed things fixed fast. But rather than help, the town left the Robinsons to fix everything themselves, which they paid for out of their own pockets. 

The Robinsons then sued the town in state court for the damage it caused and for the property it took. A jury said the town owed the Robinsons just compensation. The case went all the way up to the Oklahoma Supreme Court—and the town has racked up more legal fees resisting that ruling than the value of the original taking. On appeal, the Court confirmed that the Robinsons are now owed more than $200,000 for what happened to their property. 

That should be the end of this story. But the officials in Okay came up with a clever plan to avoid paying the bill. The town conceded it owes the Robinsons just compensation for taking their property. But as the town sees it, that constitutional requirement is satisfied by simply giving the Robinsons a piece of paper that says, “We owe you the money.” Under that theory, the town refuses to pay the Robinsons a dime. (Meanwhile, Okay councilmembers voted to add a surcharge to all water bills to offset the legal fees.)

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That’s wrong—and it’s unconstitutional. Just compensation is a principle that dates back over 800 years to Magna Carta. And it means the government must pay for property with cold hard cash—not some paper IOU.  

That’s why IJ has teamed up with the Robinsons to file a federal lawsuit. Property owners suffer an ongoing Fifth Amendment violation when the government takes their property and refuses to pay for it with actual money. A win for IJ won’t just help the Robinsons. It will also prevent other government officials from trying to sidestep the Constitution. 

This case builds on IJ’s recent U.S. Supreme Court win in DeVillier v. Texas, in which we successfully defended a Texas family’s right to seek just compensation for the flooding of their family ranch.

Brian Morris is an IJ attorney.