In Sheyn v. Ventura County Public Works Agency et al., published February 20, 2025, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 6 reversed a dismissal of an inverse condemnation lawsuit on demurrer. The plaintiff grew avocados. The defendant district is a publicly-owned utility that provides water to the plaintiff and other property owners. The plaintiff's property is at the end of a branch line of the district's system. The plaintiff alleged that the amount of sediment in his water is vastly and grossly disproportionately greater than other properties the district serves, and that the sediment damaged his irrigation pipes and orchard. He alleged that this is a direct and necessary result of the plan, design, maintenance, and operation of the district's water supply facilities. The trial court sustained the district's demurrer to the inverse condemnation cause of action, on the ground that the plaintiff invited the water onto his property.
The appellate court ruled that the plaintiff had stated a cause of action for inverse condemnation. A cause of action for inverse condemnation lies where damage to real property is substantially caused by an inherent risk presented by the deliberate design, construction, or maintenance of a public improvement. The injury to private property must be an inescapable or unavoidable consequence of the public improvement as planned and constructed. Plaintiff sought compensation for allegedly bearing a disproportionate amount of the externalized costs of a public improvement resulting from an inherent risk presented by the deliberate design, construction, or maintenance of the public improvement. This interpretation supports a claim for inverse condemnation. That he "invited" the water onto his land (rather than being flooded) does not change that.
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