Martin v. City of Indianapolis

Facts

Jan Randolph Martin, an artist with degrees from Purdue University, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Bowling Green State University, worked as production coordinator for Tarpenning-LaFollette Company, a metal contracting firm. In 1984, Martin received permission from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission to erect a large metal sculpture on land owned by his employer’s chairman, John LaFollette. The Company furnished materials for the project. A Project Agreement between the City and the Company granted a zoning variance and specified that if the sculpture needed to be removed, the City would provide ninety days’ written notice to the landowner and sculpture owner. Martin completed “Symphony #1,” a twenty-by-forty-foot stainless steel sculpture, in approximately two years, engineering it to be disassembled and reassembled if removal became necessary. The sculpture received favorable attention from the press and art community. In April 1992, the City notified LaFollette of plans to acquire the property for urban renewal. Martin and his brother offered to donate the sculpture to the City if it would bear removal costs, but the City failed to provide the contractually required notice and demolished Symphony #1 without warning.