The court of appeals affirmed a district court judgment. The court held that a property owner was not entitled to recover its litigation fees and costs for a condemnation proceeding brought, and later abandoned, by a private party even where that party was acting under federal authority.
The Federal Electric Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave Transwestern Pipeline Company, LLC permission to construct a natural gas pipeline across some 897 properties in central Arizona. The affected properties included land owned by Agua Fria Investments, LLC. Transwestern filed suit to condemn the Agua Fria property. Agua Fria aggressively opposed.
