Brief Fact Summary. Property owner brought suit to prevent Pennsylvania Coal Company from mining under their property so as to remove supports and cause a subsidence of the surface and their houses. The deeds conveyed only surface rights to the homeowners and expressly reserved the right to remove the coal underneath as a separate estate. The Kohler Act prohibited companies in Pennsylvania from mining of coal in such a way as to cause the subsidence of homes and surfaces near improved properties.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Limitations on the use of land through the police power have limits and will be considered a taking under the eminent domain power when the diminution in value of the property reaches a certain magnitude, which depends upon the particular facts.
Issue. Whether the statute was permissible under the police power or instead constituted an exercise of eminent domain that required just compensation.
Held. Private owner had only acquired surface rights and not the right to supporting property underneath the land. The Kohler Act went beyond a regulation and became a taking. The Court considered the magnitude of diminution of the value of property and found that when a diminution reaches a certain point the government must compensate for it. The Pennsylvania Coal Co. could not exercise the only valuable right it possessed which was to mine the property for profit. The Court acknowledged that the public may have use for the support, and an interest in their safety, however, the subsurface rights to a property could not be taken for the public without just compensation.
The protection of private property in the Fifth Amendment presupposes that it is wanted for public use, but provides that it shall not be taken for such use without compensation.
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