Supreme Court to Resolve Circuit Split on Attorney's Fee Recovery in Natural Gas Act Eminent Domain Proceedings

The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a circuit split over whether the Fifth Amendment or state law governs compensation—including attorney's fees—when interstate pipeline companies exercise federal eminent domain authority under the Natural Gas Act. The Eighth Circuit's exclusion of $383,000 in attorney's fees awarded under North Dakota law to landowners directly conflicts with Third, Fifth, Sixth, and Eleventh Circuit precedent permitting state-law fee recovery in Natural Gas Act condemnation proceedings.