Commissioner of the Department of Transportation v. Ben Lomand Telephone Co-op, Inc.

617 S.W.2d 146, 1981 Tenn. App. LEXIS 494
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMarch 4, 1981
StatusPublished

This text of 617 S.W.2d 146 (Commissioner of the Department of Transportation v. Ben Lomand Telephone Co-op, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commissioner of the Department of Transportation v. Ben Lomand Telephone Co-op, Inc., 617 S.W.2d 146, 1981 Tenn. App. LEXIS 494 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

OPINION

CANTRELL, Judge.

This is an appeal from a jury verdict in an eminent domain case where the State contests the right of the landowner to recover expenses for relocation of its telephone lines located on poles along a public sidewalk. The State also asserts that to allow an enhanced value for the property taken because it is frontage and then to allow incidental damages for the loss of frontage is a double assessment of damage.

Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative, Incorporated, a public utility providing telephone service to subscribers in Warren and eight other Middle Tennessee counties, has a central office on North Chancery Street in McMinnville. At that office the telephone cables are carried from the office to the street on overhead trusses suspended between structural steel supports set in concrete. When the lines reach the street some go directly across to poles on the other side and some are attached to poles on the near or west side that run with the street in a north-south direction. A five foot wide sidewalk runs along the west edge of the street, in front of the central office, and the utility poles which carry the lines are actually set in the sidewalk approximately six inches to a foot from the edge of the street. The poles belong to another utility and Ben Lomand gets permission to use them by virtue of a joint use agreement which specifically says that no other easement or property right is acquired by the agreement.

[147]*147In the late 1970’s the State condemned a strip of land along North Chancery Street parallel to the existing right-of-way for the purpose of making the street wide enough for five traffic lanes. The portion taken from the front of the Appellee’s property was a strip approximately 30 feet wide measured from the back or inside of the sidewalk or approximately thirty-five feet from the edge of the existing street and including the sidewalk. The ownership of the sidewalk is in dispute; the utility claims that its property extended to the street; the State claims that the sidewalk is public property. If the area taken did not include the sidewalk, the State acquired 7,782 sq. ft. from the front of Ben Lomand’s lot; if it did include the sidewalk, the area taken would be approximately 8,862 sq. ft.

The case was submitted to the jury for a determination of the value of the land taken, incidental damages to the remainder, the value of a temporary construction easement, and the expenses of removing the utility lines. In addition, the jury was requested to find specially the amount of property taken. The jury’s verdict was:

1. The fair market value of the land taken - $ 12,840.30
2. Incidental damages to the remainder - 15,000.00
3. Temporary construction easement - 1,000.00
4. The expenses of removing utility lines - 114,364.86
5. The amount of property taken - 7,782 sq. ft.

The amount the jury found for removing and relocating the utility lines was based on the proof of the Appellee and covered the expenses for removal and reinstallation, not only in the area of their property taken, but all along North Chancery Street from “Morford Street out to where we tied in at Village Car Wash”.

Implicit in the jury’s verdict about the amount of property taken is a finding that the Appellee did not own the sidewalk where the poles were located.

At the trial the State fought unsuccessfully to have the amount of moving expenses limited by excluding that portion which represented relocation of lines on public property. The controversy arises from an interpretation of T.C.A. § 29-16-114 (formerly T.C.A. § 23-1414) which provides in part:

“Whenever any person, agency, or other entity acquires interest in any parcel of real property and such acquisition requires the removal of furniture, household belongings, fixtures, equipment, machinery, or stock in trade of any person in rightful possession, regardless of whether such person has a legal interest in said property, the reasonable expenses of the removal shall be considered in assessing incidental damages. The reasonable expense of the removal of such chattels shall be construed as including the cost of any necessary disconnection, dismantling, or disassembling, the loading, and dray-age to another location not more than fifty (50) miles distant, and the reassembling, reconnecting, and installing on such new location.”

The Trial Judge charged the jury as follows:

“I have been requested and do charge you as follows: Also, regarding Item No. 4: Whenever any agency acquires interest in any parcel of real property, and such acquisition requires the removal of fixtures, equipment, machinery or stock in trade of any person in rightful possession, regardless of whether such person has a legal interest in said property, the reasonable expense of the removal shall be considered in assessing the incidental damages. The reasonable expense of the removal of such chattels shall be construed as including the cost of any necessary disconnection, dismantling or disassembling; the loading; the drayage to another location not more than fifty (50) miles distant and the reassembling, reconnecting and installing at such new location. The purpose of providing for the payment of costs of removal in eminent domain cases is to make the property owner whole. But the cost of disassembling, removal and assembling in the new location may not exceed the cost of buying and installing similar articles. Therefore, the landowner should receive the full cost of removal or replacement, but no more than the full cost of removal or [148]*148replacement as moving expenses. The defendant is entitled to receive incidental damages for moving expense in addition to compensation for the property taken and the incidental damages to its remaining property.”

The State submitted two requests for special charges which the Trial Judge denied. They are:

“Under the common law rule, predicated upon the police power of the State, utilities using the public ways under franchise grant can be required to remove and/or relocate their lines at their own expense. If you the jury do not feel that the Ben Lomand Telephone Company has carried the burden of establishing by a preponderance of the evidence that its poles are not located on public property, then you shall not return as part of your verdict an amount for moving expenses that represents a portion of the utility’s lines that are located upon public property*
“Under the common law rule, predicated upon the police power of the State,' utilities using the public ways under franchise grant can be required to remove and/or relocate their lines at their own expense. This result is reached because public authority is granting the utility a gratuity by allowing it to locate on public property and must bear the risk that they will be required to move.”

All of the above instructions are essentially correct as far as they go. The instruction given by the Trial Judge follows the statute almost verbatim. The special requests submitted by the State reflect the common law rule in Tennessee as repeated in Pack v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pack v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co.
387 S.W.2d 789 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1965)
Bristol Tennessee Housing Authority v. Bristol Gas Corp.
407 S.W.2d 681 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
617 S.W.2d 146, 1981 Tenn. App. LEXIS 494, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commissioner-of-the-department-of-transportation-v-ben-lomand-telephone-tennctapp-1981.