The government's power to take private property for public use if it pays for it.

That breaks down into three parts. "Government" usually means the state, a city, a county, or a utility or pipeline company that has been given that power by law. "Take" does not only mean grabbing the whole parcel. It can mean taking part of the land, an easement, access rights, or use of the property in a way that guts its value. "Public use" sounds noble, but in practice it can cover roads, schools, power lines, water projects, and other projects pushed as serving the public. The payment piece is called just compensation, and fights over value are where these cases usually get ugly. The formal lawsuit is a condemnation action.

Why it matters: eminent domain can wreck a property owner's leverage. You usually are not negotiating from a position of equal power. The real battle is often over price, loss of access, business interruption, and whether the taking damages what is left of the property.

For an injury claim, eminent domain can matter when construction, road work, or utility projects create dangerous conditions that lead to a crash or other harm. It can also overlap with claims for property damage or inverse condemnation if the government effectively takes use of property without following the normal process. Wyoming handles these disputes under its eminent domain statutes, and separate personal injury claims still run under Wyoming's modified comparative fault rule: if an injured person is 51% or more at fault, recovery is barred.