2013

Puryear v. Town of Ashland

Virginia Circuit Court

86 Va. Cir. 501

Town condemned property for road and welcome center in 2002. In 2012, the welcome center never having been built, Town sold property to Chick-Fil-A, Inc., for a restaurant. Former landowners brought action to make the Town sell the property back to them or pay damages, as the land no longer had a public use. Town demurred and court sustained demurrer. While landowners admitted the land was taken for a public use initially, they alleged that pursuant to Va. Code § 25.1-108 the Town had to offer a sale of the land to them. Court held that the statute only applied to property acquired by a condemnor after July 1, 2005. As the statute did not apply, and there was no common law duty for such sale in Virginia, the former owners retained no rights in the property.

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