Facts
The case concerns the construction of the national highway N4 in the canton of Zug. For the road construction, a comprehensive land improvement was carried out, within the perimeter of which the residential building of the farmer Anton Walker also fell. The residential building had to either be demolished or relocated. The competent authority (SVIL) offered Walker compensation, which he, however, rejected as insufficient. Thereupon, the Cantonal Government of Zug decided to relocate the residential building within the framework of the land consolidation procedure without initiating an expropriation procedure.
Walker filed an administrative court appeal against this decision and argued that the relocation of the residential building could only be ordered in the expropriation procedure, as the land consolidation procedure was obviously not sufficient to meet his legitimate claim for compensation.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court upheld the appeal. It stated that the canton of Zug indeed had the choice between land consolidation and expropriation procedures if a voluntary acquisition was not possible. However, this did not mean that the landowner had to tolerate equally incisive interventions in his private property in the land consolidation procedure as in the expropriation procedure.
The Federal Supreme Court found that the cantonal law of…