Griggs v. Allegheny Cnty.
Supreme Court
369 U.S. 84 (1962)
Allegheny County (defendant) operated an airport near Griggs's (plaintiff) home, with planes required to fly as low as roughly 11 feet above his chimney and regularly passing over with only 30 to 300 feet of clearance, generating noise that made conversation, phone calls, and sleep impossible during flights, causing vibration damage to the house and health harm to its occupants, and creating a collision risk if any plane experienced engine trouble on takeoff. Griggs sued in state court claiming the county had taken an air easement requiring compensation; the trial court agreed and awarded $12,690, but the state supreme court held the county wasn't liable even if a taking occurred, and Griggs appealed.
Whether government-mandated low-altitude aircraft flights over private property, substantially interfering with the property's use, constitute a taking requiring just compensation under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.