Galaxy Outdoor Advertising v. Idaho

Appellants appeal from a district court order granting summary judgment in favor of the Idaho Transportation Department. The district court, in granting summary judgment, ruled that contracts executed between the advertising companies and the Idaho Department of Transportation bound all parties and prevented the advertising companies from recovering for certain highway signs removed pursuant to federal and state highway beautification acts. We affirm. This controversy arose following the enactment of the Federal Highway Beautification Act in 1965. The federal act required that states control outdoor advertising signs located along primary and interstate highways. This act directed the Secretary of Transportation to reduce by 10% the amount of federal highway funds available to any state which failed to control these outdoor advertising structures. The act provided that just compensation should be paid to the owners of certain of these advertising structures, with 75% of the compensation to be paid by the federal government. Idaho subsequently adopted its own Highway Beautification Act on April 12, 1967. See I.C. §§ 40-2811 through -2838 (repealed 1985).