US Urges High Court to Deny Attorneys’ Fees in Pipeline Dispute

The US Supreme Court should hear a petition from North Dakota ranchers asking how compensation should be handled in condemned land cases, the US Solicitor General said in a brief requested by the court.

Upon granting the petition, the high court should affirm the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit’s decision rejecting a judge’s award of more than $383,000 in attorneys’ fees and expenses, the solicitor general said in the brief filed May 22.

The appeals court “correctly held that the Fifth Amendment, not state law, supplies the standard ...