Also known as: destroy all use or value · destroys all use or value · waste · total destruction
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A complete elimination of every economically beneficial use of property or its entire value. This standard identifies when a regulation crosses into a categorical taking that requires just compensation.
Demetrius Douglas operates a landfill that accepts hazardous waste from neighboring states. State A enacts a surcharge that applies only to out-of-state waste and doubles the cost of disposal. The fee eliminates any profit margin on those shipments, leaving Douglas with no economically viable way to use the landfill for its intended purpose.
Deanna Davenport owns specialized manufacturing equipment damaged when a delivery truck strikes her loading dock. The equipment retains some residual function after repairs. Because the harm does not destroy all use or value, damages are limited to the difference in value before and after the incident plus any loss of use.
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Destiny Davis holds a fee tail estate preserved for a single lifetime. She begins clear-cutting timber and stripping topsoil in a manner that leaves the land incapable of any future productive use. The duty not to commit waste prevents her from destroying all use or value even though she possesses the privileges of a fee simple owner during her lifetime.
David Dawson runs a private recycling plant that processes solid waste generated inside a municipality. A local ordinance requires all locally produced waste to be processed at a single designated in-state facility before any material may leave the area. The rule closes Dawson's plant to all local supply, eliminating every commercial use of the facility.
Doris Duffy owns a parcel of undeveloped land that a neighboring factory floods with industrial runoff. The flooding renders the surface unusable for building or farming but leaves the subsurface mineral rights intact. Because the invasion does not destroy all use or value, damages are measured by the difference in land value before and after the harm plus any proven loss of use.
Damian Decker owns a private composting business that previously accepted agricultural waste from local farms. A county ordinance now requires all such waste to be delivered exclusively to a newly created public composting authority. The rule diverts every customer away from Decker's facility, leaving it without any remaining commercial use or value.
A regulation destroys all use or value when it leaves the owner with no economically beneficial or productive use of the land. Courts compare the property's value before and after the regulation and ask whether any viable economic use remains.
Supporting sources
No. Only a total deprivation of economically beneficial use qualifies. Regulations that reduce value without eliminating every productive use are analyzed under the multi-factor Penn Central test rather than the categorical rule.
Supporting sources
Waste rules prevent a life tenant or mortgagor from committing acts that destroy all use or value of the land. The duty not to waste protects the future interest or the mortgagee's security interest by preserving the property's economic utility.
…Dozens in Canada Follow Gay Couple's Lead, Washington Post, June 12, 2003, p. A25. At the end of its opinion—after having laid waste the foundations of our rational-basis jurisprudence—the Court says that the present case "does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that…