Rhode Island Town Lawfully Assumed Control of Dam, Panel Rules

A Rhode Island town and state environmental regulators properly condemned a private dam, a federal appeals panel ruled Friday.

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit swiftly dismissed Soscia Holdings LLC’s claims under the contract, takings, and due process clauses of the US Constitution, deferring to a federal court’s opinion which held the Coventry, R.I., offered “just compensation” for the Flat River Reservoir.

District Judge Landya B. McCafferty of New Hampshire, who sat by designation, issued two rulings for the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island that stated permitting laws weren’t “unreasonable or unnecessary to ...