ndemned a laundry plant for
temporary occupancy, evidence should have been received concerning the
diminution in the value of its business due to destruction of its trade
routes, and compensation allowed for any demonstrable loss of
going-concern value. In United States _v._ Pewee Coal Co.,[321]
involving another temporary seizure by the government, a similarly
divided Court sustained the Court of Claims in awarding the company
compensation for losses attributable to increased wage payments by the
government. Four Justices thought no such loss had been shown.

Interest

Ordinarily property is taken under a condemnation suit upon the payment
of the money award by the condemner and no interest accrues.[322] If,
however, the property is taken in fact before payment is made, just
compensation includes an increment which, to avoid use of the term
"interest," the Court has called "an amount sufficient to produce the
full equivalent of that value paid contemporaneously with the
taking."[323] If the owner and the Government enter into a contract
which stipulates the purchase price for lands to be taken, with no
provision for interest, the Fifth Amendment is inapplicable and the
landowner cannot recover interest even though payment of the purchase
price is delayed.[324] Where property of a citizen has been mistakenly
seized by the Government, converted into money and invested, the owner
is entitled, in recovering compensation, to an allowance for the use of
his property.[325]

Enforcement of Right to Compensation

When a taking of private property has been ordered, the question of just
compensation is judicial.[326] The compensation to be paid may be
ascertained by any appropriate tribunal capable of estimating the value
of the property. Whether the tribunal shall be created directly by
Congress or one already established by the State shall be adopted for
the occasion, is a matter of legislative discretion.[327] The estimate
of just compensation is not required to be made by a jury, but may be
entrusted to commissioners appointed by a court or by the executive, or
to an inquest consisting of more or fewer men than an ordinary
jury.[328] The federal courts may take jurisdiction of an action in
ejectment by a citizen against officers of the Government, to recover
property of which he has been deprived by force and which has been
converted to the use of the Government without lawful authority and
without just compensation.