Eminent Domain: Ohio Supreme Court Rules that Compensation Trials Cannot Proceed While Landowners Appeal Necessity of Taking

By: Steven R. R. Anderson

An exercise of eminent domain power requires courts in Ohio to examine two questions. First, is the proposed taking for a “public use”? Second, if it is, then what is the “just compensation” owed to the landowner whose property is being taken?

If a trial court rules against a landowner on the public use question, then the landowner has a right to appeal that decision. But while a landowner appeals, the trial court may want to push forward with answering the compensation question. Can the trial court do this? Or must it wait until the public use appeal has been resolved?

This was precisely the situation presented to the Ohio Supreme Court in the recent case of State ex rel. Bohlen v. Halliday, 2021-Ohio-194. The answer? A trial court must wait until the appeal is resolved before proceeding with a compensation trial.

Read the full opinion here.