Virginia farm may be the “most condemned property in America”

Last week, Fox News featured a Virginia property owner, Edd Jennings, whose family farm might be “the most condemned property in America.” Fox & Friends Host Steve Doocy spoke with the Virginia cattle rancher and his attorney, Joe Waldo (Virginia OCA Member), concerning Jennings’ inverse condemnation suit against the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). In the current litigation, Jennings alleges inverse condemnation against VDOT, because the department did not exercise eminent domain before interfering with his property rights.

The Jennings family property has been condemned 10 times in the past 40 years. The current inverse suit marks the 11th occasion that this private property has been threatened by eminent domain. Edd Jennings remembers his first brush with eminent domain, at age 5, when the government approached the Jennings family to build a bridge through the middle of their property. Judge Andrew Napolitano refers to this case a demonstration of government’s “voracious appetite for private property.”