When the land involved in a condemnation case is the subject of a valid accepted option or contract of sale, executed both by the presumptive owners and by a duly authorized representative of the acquiring agency prior to the institution of the condemnation case, the accepted option or contract is binding upon the signatories thereto in the condemnation case. The accepted option or contract should be pleaded in the complaint in condemnation. The United States Attorney is authorized without the prior approval of the Attorney General to have a judgment entered in the amount of the accepted option or contract provided that the local representative of the acquiring agency has advised in writing that the land has not decreased in value due to any action of the owners since the date of the option or contract, and all special and unusual conditions and requirements of the option or contract, if any, have been performed. It is also necessary that a determination shall have been made that the optionors in the accepted option or the vendors in the contract of sale are the sole and only parties entitled to the just compensation, other than taxing authorities, lienholders and encumbrancers whose claims may be satisfied from the award.

The procedure for summary judgments under Rule 56, Fed. R. Civ. P., should be utilized in obtaining the entry of consent judgments on options and contracts of sale, but only after the expiration of the time for filing of answers or appearance by defendants, see JM 5-15.540 and 5-15.542.

[cited in ENRD Resource Manual 7; ENRD Resource Manual 11]

[updated April 2018]