Key legal question
Whether claimants who withdrew their expropriation compensation requests were entitled to party compensation before the Schätzungskommission.
Extracted holding
A withdrawal does not automatically exclude party compensation. In long-suspended pilot-procedure cases, the withdrawing parties may generally be entitled to compensation if the litigation was still reasonably justifiable until withdrawal.
Extracted reasoning
Art. 115 EntG allows departure from the usual rule only on a discretionary basis. In ordinary cases a voluntary withdrawal may suggest the claim was not tenable, but after years of suspension pending pilot cases it may be unfair to deny compensation systematically. The commission must reassess each case and consider whether special circumstances justify departure.