Maria Terezinha Oriente Rodrigues de Moraes v. President of the Republic

In 1994, the president of Brazil (defendant) authorized the taking of a rural estate owned by Maria Terezinha (plaintiff) by a federal agency, the National Institution of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA). The federal government had previously entrusted the INCRA with determining whether a proposed taking of agrarian land by the government was for a social interest. Under Brazilian law at the time, if the INCRA found that the land in question was unproductive, the government could seize the land. In 1990, the INCRA had found that Terezinha’s land met certain efficiency measures that allowed the land to avoid taking for a social interest. Terezinha filed a petition for mandamus with the Brazil Supreme Court, arguing that because her land had satisfied these efficiency measures, the government could not seize her land. Terezinha also asserted that after 1990, her property had been occupied by landless families, which prevented her rational exploitation of the land, and that the government had used the presence of these third parties on her land to impermissibly take her land. Terezinha also argued that the government had not provided her proper notice of the 1994 taking. The government argued that the taking was valid despite the prior finding in 1990 and that the 1990 report constituted proper notice of the 1994 taking.