Citizen's Electric Corp. v. Amberger

575 S.W.2d 796, 1978 Mo. App. LEXIS 2381
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 28, 1978
DocketNos. 38765, 38773, 38774 and 38775
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 575 S.W.2d 796 (Citizen's Electric Corp. v. Amberger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Citizen's Electric Corp. v. Amberger, 575 S.W.2d 796, 1978 Mo. App. LEXIS 2381 (Mo. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

STEWART, Presiding Judge.

Condemnation proceedings in which plaintiff, an electrical utility company, was awarded easements over numerous parcels of property in Perry County.

[797]*797Exceptions of plaintiff and defendants Amberger, Huber, Hornberger and Moll were tried by the court. Plaintiff appeals from the judgments assessing damages with respect to the four parcels of these defendants. The appeals have been consolidated for our consideration. We reverse and remand.

By the proceedings plaintiff obtained easements 100 feet in width across the lands of various defendants. The petition provides that the perpetual easement is for the “purpose of erecting, constructing, reconstructing, keeping, operating, inspecting, patrolling and maintaining, a line or lines consisting of poles, towers, crossarms, wires, cables, transformers, anchors, guy wires and appurtenances ... in order to transmit and distribute electric energy, or other power, together with the right . to construct, reconstruct, erect, place, keep, operate, maintain, inspect, patrol, add to, change the type of construction of and relocate at will said transmission lines across, upon, through, over and under said easement or right of way and with the further right, permission and authority to trim, cut and remove, by any means whatsoever, from said premises or the premises of the defendants adjoining the premises sought to be condemned, any trees, overhanging branches or obstructions which may endanger the safety of or interfere with said transmission lines; and together with the right of ingress to and egress from the premises sought to be condemned on such premises or the premises of defendants adjoining the premises sought to be condemned at any and all times for the [purposes set out] . . . and the right of traveling over said premises sought to be condemned for the purpose of gaining ingress to and egress from the rights of way or easements owned by Plaintiff over lands adjacent to the ends thereof for the purpose of doing anything necessary or convenient for the enjoyment of the easement . ..”

It is further provided that “Except for the area required for said transmission lines, and the rights Plaintiff needs and seeks to acquire as alleged, the balance of defendant’s lands and said right of way or easement upon and across said real estate will not actually be appropriated by plaintiff but will remain for such use by defendants as will not endanger or interfere with or create a hazard or obstruction to said transmission lines and the right plaintiff needs and seeks to acquire as alleged, except that the said defendants shall not have the right to erect or construct any buildings or structures upon said right of way.” Plaintiff further covenanted that it would not fence or enclose the right of way.

At the time of the trial the construction of the lines had been completed.

The determinative issues of these appeals are common to each parcel of property, the extent of the easements and the valuations differ. The basis of the value of the various properties before the taking is comparable sales. The sales used are common to the appraisal of plaintiff’s expert witness and the expert witnesses called by the defendants.

The Amberger Tract is illustrative of the issues common to each of the cases before us. This tract has a total of 176 acres. The easement covers 7.42 acres. Plaintiff set 13 poles and one anchor on the easement. Mr. Amberger testified that the value of the farm before the taking was $120,000.00. After the taking it was worth $100,000.00 resulting in a loss of $20,000.00. In determining the depreciation he considered that he had to cut 150 trees. He used some of the timber for fencing and sold the remainder for $1,500.00. Other factors considered in the valuation were the unsightliness of the poles, the compaction of the soil by reason of the construction. It was difficult to use four row farm equipment because of the poles. He also made reference to fence damage. The transcript is not clear as to just what if any damage was sustained to his fences.

Mr. Hoehn, Mr. Kassel and Mr. Meyer were called as appraisers on behalf of Am-berger. They placed the value of the farm before the appropriation at between $123,-000.00 and $132,000.00 and that the property was reduced in value by $10,224.00 to $11,535.00.

[798]*798They all testified that factors considered by them included the value of the land before and after taking, the value of the land taken, damages to the property such as fencing, compaction of the soil on the easement, the difficulty of operating farm machinery around the poles and consequent weed infestation, the inability to have the crops sprayed by aircraft, unsightliness of the poles and frequency of entries on the land.

Mr. Hoehn testified he reached his conclusion as follows:

Damage to fencing at $2.00 per foot 2,656.00
Damage to remainder attributed to unsightliness, loss of income and frequency of entry 2.112.00
$10,333.00

Mr. Kassel and Mr. Meyer determined the damages to the tract as follows:

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Related

State ex rel. Missouri Highway & Transportation Commission v. Spencer
820 S.W.2d 87 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1991)
City of Cape Girardeau v. Robertson
615 S.W.2d 526 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1981)

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Bluebook (online)
575 S.W.2d 796, 1978 Mo. App. LEXIS 2381, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/citizens-electric-corp-v-amberger-moctapp-1978.