The Takings Clause
Defining Public Use and Its Limits
Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon (1922)
260 U.S. 393 (1922)
Decision: Reversed
Vote: 8-1
Majority: Holmes, joined by Taft, McKenna, Day, Van Devanter, Pitney, McReynolds and Sutherland
Dissent: Brandeis
MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a bill in equity [a legal process whereby a party to a contract brings an action asking for equitable relief] brought by the defendants in error to prevent the Pennsylvania Coal Company from mining under their property in such way as to remove the supports and cause a subsidence [gradual caving in or sinking] of the surface and of their house. The bill sets out a deed executed by the Coal Company in 1878, under which the plaintiffs claim. The deed conveys the surface, but, in express terms, reserves the right to remove all the coal under the same, and the grantee takes the premises with the risk, and waives all claim for damages that may arise from mining out the coal. But the plaintiffs say that, whatever may have been the Coal Company’s rights, they were taken away by an Act of Pennsylvania … commonly known there as the Kohler Act …
The statute forbids the mining of anthracite coal in such way as to cause the subsidence of, among other things, any structure used as a human habitation, with certain exceptions, including among them land where the surface is owned by the owner of the underlying coal and is distant more than one hundred and fifty feet from any improved property belonging to any other person. As applied to this case, the statute is admitted to destroy previously existing rights of property and contract. The question is whether the police power can be stretched so far.
Government hardly could go on if, to some extent, values incident to property could not be diminished without paying for every such change in the general law. As long recognized, some values are enjoyed under an implied limitation, and must yield to the police power. But obviously the implied limitation must have its limits, or the contract and due process clauses are gone. One fact for consideration in determining such limits is the extent of the diminution. When it reaches a certain magnitude, in most if not in all cases, there must be an exercise of eminent domain and compensation to sustain the act. So the question depends upon the particular facts. The greatest weight is given to the judgment of the legislature, but it always is open to interested parties to contend that the legislature has gone beyond its constitutional power …
It is our opinion that the act cannot be sustained as an exercise of the police power, so far as it affects the mining of coal under streets or cities in places where the right to mine such coal has been reserved. As said in a Pennsylvania case, “For practical purposes, the right to coal consists in the right to mine it.” Commonwealth v. Clearview Coal Co., (1917). What makes the right to mine coal valuable is that it can be ex