In a stunning assertion of power, the federal government is forcing landowners to pick between two poisons. Accept lowball eminent domain offers for private property or drown in legal costs. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Leonard Hoffmann was offered roughly half the market rate for gas pipeline access across his pastureland, backed by the threat of eminent domain. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in court to contest the offer, but despite winning, Hoffmann received a financial hammer blow: pay all legal costs.
In a staggering ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit declared Hoffmann must foot the bill to challenge below-market land offers—even though he won on the issue related to the use of other pipeline easement transactions as comparable sales. He proved his case that he is entitled to recover fees, but according to the Eighth Circuit, if a landowner dares to challenge a government-backed gas giant, the landowner loses either at the get-go or the finish line.
Hoffmann, along with several other neighboring property owners, is taking his case directly to the Supreme Court of the United States, represented by the Institute for Justice.
“Where is basic fairness?” he asks. “Where in the hell did reason go?”
We Were in the Way
In 2018, in the process of pipeline construction, WBI Energy Transmission knocked at the farm gates of Leonard Hoffmann, Rocky Prestangen, Randy Stevenson, and Denae Hoffmann, all located in extreme western North Dakota’s McKenzie County. WBI asked for easement access and a 99-year lease from the landowners. The request was backed by demand: WBI operated with a federal permit, allowing the natural gas company to wield eminent domain. Sell or else.
However, the landowner foursome had long legs in North Dakota agriculture. Their acres, homesteaded by great-grandparents over a century in the past, were a mix of arid pastureland, along with wheat, oats, barley, and alfalfa, tucked a stone’s throw from Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and their locale had been in the bull’s-eye for oil and gas development for several decades.
“We didn’t even resist the eminent domain—all we wanted was for WBI to just be reasonable about our land value,” Hoffman says. “Instead, seven years of abuse trying to break us.”
(Photo by IJ)
In a nutshell, Hoffmann and the other third- and fourth-generation landowners had pipeline experience and already had multiple lines running beneath their fields. They understood rates and land prices.
WBI offered roughly half of market value for easement access. “People are appalled by the details of what has gone on,” Prestangen says. “WBI took our land, and on top of that, gave us half value because they knew they had eminent domain power from the government.”
“The average person is disgusted when they hear about this,” Hoffmann echoes. “WBI came at us with far less than the going rate; a 99-year lease which is three times what other companies ask; and a 100’ exclusive easement, instead of the 25’ sought by other companies, ensuring no other pipelines can cross without their permission. The numbers don’t lie: Landowners were getting less than 5% of the total project budget.”
“We were never about telling them, ‘No,’ because we knew they had eminent domain,” Hoffmann adds. “We just wanted them to pay the going rate and be fair. Didn’t matter. They just didn’t give a care because we were in the way.”
Catch-22
Hoffmann and Prestangen refused to roll. They went to court and paid attorney fees out of pocket, insisting on the right to rely on market rates to show the value of their farms and pasturelands. Three years later, a federal judge decided in their favor on the use of other easement transactions as evidence, and also ruled for 100% reimbursement of legal fees from WBI.
However, WBI appealed the reimbursement, and in 2024, the Eighth Circuit decided in favor of the pipeline company, forcing Hoffmann and Prestangen to pay all litigation costs. In essence, Hoffmann and Prestangen were forced into a vise sanctioned by the federal government: Either surrender money up front for your land or pay it later in court fees. Lose-lose.
On the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, Hoffmann and Prestangen were bled out. No more cards to play. “That’s exactly what these big corporations want,” Prestangen says. “At some point, they know you won’t have the financial means to fight. They wait for your personal savings to run low. We were in deep with nowhere to turn.”
(Citing pending litigation, WBI declined all Agweb.com questions regarding the Eighth Circuit decision and the Hoffmann case.)
However, the Eighth Circuit’s massive ruling caught the eye of liberty-leaning Institute for Justice, and the law firm took the case at no cost. IJ attorney Matt Liles says the Eighth Circuit’s decision was a “Catch-22” for private property owners.
“Every federal court that’s looked at this issue has decided landowners should be compensated, and state law almost always entitles landowners to attorney fees. We got involved because this could eventually affect landowners all over the country if other courts follow. This ruling puts landowners in a position where a gas company can take your land at a bad price and you can’t even get your legal fees paid if you prove in court what the gas company is doing. The ruling ensures that landowners can’t resist at any stage.”
“Look at the four landowners (Hoffmann, Prestangen, Stevenson and Denae Hoffmann) in this fight,” Liles continues. “They represent property that’s been in families for over 100 years that required tremendous struggle to hold onto. The land is a symbol of survival, but now they’re fighting a gas giant.”
IJ appealed the Eighth Circuit decision to the U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 7, 2025. The High Court will decide in October 2025 whether to officially hear the case.
In the meantime, Hoffmann waits. “It’s been nothing but extreme stress, depositions, testimony in court, meaningless negotiations, and strain on all our families since 2018,” he says. “We didn’t even resist the eminent domain—all we wanted was for WBI to just be reasonable about our land value. Instead, seven years of abuse trying to break us.”
The Battering Ram
Looming in the background is a lesson from the recent past.
This was not Hoffmann and Prestangen’s first go-round with WBI and eminent domain. The gas company took another easement across their properties in 2014.
“They ran right through us and listened to nothing we said,” Prestangen recalls. “Other pipeline companies I’ve dealt with were receptive about the location of my farmland or hunting ground, but not WBI. They charged through in a matter of weeks and didn’t care about the land, leaving potholes and washouts in my fields.”
“This is about arrogance of power, eminent domain abuse, and a terrible failure in the justice system,” says Rocky Prestangen, left, pictured alongside Randy Stevenson.
(Photo by IJ)
Hoffmann concurs and claims WBI’s restoration of the disturbed pipeline corridor on his land was a nightmare in 2014. “We asked WBI to minimize their impact to our farming and ranching by taking specific routes. They refused. We asked the crew for 10 days to get hay off our land before they went through. Two days later, it was all gone. WBI came across with whatever was easiest, quickest and cheapest for them.”
“Once WBI finished the line, a third-party company came in for reclamation to repair our land,” Hoffmann adds. “We literally had to stay on this company by the week to get them to show up. Reseeding in an arid climate can mean several years before grass grows again, but they didn’t do anything we’d been promised. The only thing WBI ever cared about was doing studies to avoid archeological areas and eco-nature because they were worried about federal regulations. But disturbing our farmland and pastureland production? They couldn’t have cared less.”
In August 2025, WBI was awarded a $500 million grant by the North Dakota Industrial Commission to build another pipeline. WBI is part of Montana Dakota Utilities (MDU). “That’s how it works,” Hoffmann notes. “WBI was created as a spinoff of MDU. Why? In my opinion, they needed WBI to take advantage of federal regulation to be able to use eminent domain. They had to have eminent domain in their hip pocket to cross lands like ours.”
WBI President Rob Johnson, while discussing the new $500 million grant, referenced eminent domain. “There are times where sometimes it’s necessary, but the goal going in is to not have to use eminent domain,” Johnson said. “That’s always our stance.”
“Are you kidding?” Hoffmann says. “Eminent domain is always on the table and the landowners know it. Eminent domain is the battering ram behind everything they do. For him to pretend otherwise pretty much tells the whole story.”
If the Supreme Court accepts Hoffmann and Prestangen’s case, a decision is likely in 2026. Attorneys general from 12 states are urging SCOTUS to accept the case: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Idaho, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.
“Here’s what’s at stake,” Hoffmann concludes. “It’s now OK to force private landowners to accept minimal payment for property and then take more money from them if they protest and prove their case in court. That is fundamentally wrong.”
“This is about arrogance of power, eminent domain abuse, and a terrible failure in the justice system,” Prestangen adds. “They make you feel like nothing is yours.”