Charles Evans Hughes

“ Land, or an interest in land, cannot be deemed to be taken by the government merely because it is suitable to be used in connection with an adjoining tract which the government has acquired, or because of a depreciation in its value, due to the apprehension of such use. The mere location of a battery certainly is not an appropriation of the property within the range of its guns.
The petitioners' argument assumes that the guns, for proper practice, must be fired over the land in suit, and, hence, that this burden upon it was a necessary incident to the maintenance of the fort. ”

“ Reduced to the last analysis, the claim of the petitioners rests upon the fact that the guns were fired upon two occasions in 1902, as stated, and upon the apprehension that the firing will be repeated. That there is any intention to repeat it does not appear, but rather is negatived. There is no showing that the guns will ever be fired unless in necessary defense in time of war. We deem the facts found to be too slender a basis for a decision that the property of the claimants has been actually appropriated, and that the government has thus impliedly agreed to pay for it. ”

“ The land in question, comprising about 200 acres, forms the southern corner of Gerrish island, the southernmost point on the coast of Maine. It lies about 3 miles from Portsmouth, bordering on the south and east the Atlantic ocean, and on the west the entrance to Portsmouth harbor. ”