The Bottom Line
- When land is expropriated for public projects, compensation is strictly limited to direct financial losses, such as the value of the land and the reduced value of remaining assets.
- Dutch courts will not award damages for business disruption, stress, or other non-financial losses caused by lengthy legal proceedings within the expropriation case itself.
- Businesses seeking compensation for unreasonable procedural delays must file a separate, more complex lawsuit against the government body responsible for the judiciary, not the expropriating agency.
The Details
A recent ruling from the District Court of Gelderland provides a crucial clarification for any company whose land is in the path of a public infrastructure project. The case involved the Dutch State expropriating a portion of private land for the ViA15 highway project. While the State and the landowners eventually agreed on the financial compensation for the lost land, the diminished value of the remaining property, and other direct costs, a key dispute centered on whether the landowners could claim extra damages for the exceptionally long duration of the procedure.
The core legal question was whether the state’s compensation should extend to immaterial damages—the stress and uncertainty caused by a legal process that spanned several years. The landowners argued that this delay violated their right to have their case heard within a reasonable time, warranting additional financial relief. The court, however, firmly rejected this line of reasoning, drawing a sharp legal distinction between the consequences of losing property and the consequences of the legal process that formalizes that loss.
In its decision, the court ruled that damages arising from procedural delays are not a direct result of the expropriation itself. Therefore, they cannot be claimed from the expropriating entity (in this case, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Waterstaat) as part of the compensation package. The court directed that any claim for unreasonable delay constitutes a separate legal matter—an alleged unlawful act by the State in its capacity as the administrator of justice. Pursuing such a claim would require a new and separate lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice and Security, setting a higher and more difficult bar for businesses to clear.
Source
Rechtbank Gelderland
