US seized California island ranch after $4m offer; jury awarded family $12.7m

A federal jury in Los Angeles ordered the United States government to pay $12.7 million (£7.8 million) to a California family after it seized their 6,300-acre ranch on Santa Cruz Island. The verdict, delivered in February 1999 after a three-week trial, ended a decades-long property dispute between federal park officials and attorney Francis Gherini, whose family had owned part of the island for more than a century. According to contemporary reporting by the Los Angeles Times, the jury spent about five hours deliberating before rejecting the government's long-standing valuation of the property. The US government had initially offered $4 million for Gherini's share of the island before using eminent domain to seize the land in 1996.