Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. West

456 S.W.2d 143, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2433
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 9, 1970
DocketNo. 7993
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 456 S.W.2d 143 (Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. West) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. West, 456 S.W.2d 143, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2433 (Tex. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

CHADICK, Chief Justice.

The following statement from the appellant’s brief gives the background and the general nature of this lawsuit; and for that purpose it is adopted: “This case is a proceeding in eminent domain to obtain a 20-foot wide limited easement across and under the land of Appellees in Hopkins County, Texas, for the installation of an underground communications cable necessary to provide long distance telephone service to the public in Sulphur Springs, Texas.

“The Commissioners in Condemnation awarded Appellees $300.00. Appellees appealed to the County Court of Hopkins County where a jury awarded $9,031.20. Appellant appealed to the Tyler Court of Civil Appeals which reversed the judgment and remanded the case for a new trial. In the interim, by Act of the 1967 Legislature, jurisdiction for eminent domain proceedings in Hopkins County, Texas, was placed in the District Court. In the second trial the District Court jury awarded Appellees $16,776. The trial court ordered a remitti-tur of $4,276.”

The following is extracted from the judgment underlying this appeal, to-wit:

“* * * Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, a corporation, shall be invested with and shall have and recover of and from the defendants, J. Harlan West and wife, Doris West, a right-of-way easement to construct, operate, maintain, replace, and remove such telephone, telegraph and communications system as plaintiff, its successors and as[145]*145signs, may from time to time require, consisting of underground cables, wires, conduits, splice boxes and other communications appurtenances under and across said twenty-foot right of way, together with the right of ingress and egress over and across the twenty-foot right of way across defendants’ land, and right to clear and keep all trees, roots, brush and other obstructions from the surface and sub-surface of said right of way, with the right to install, maintain and use gates in fences which cross said right of way; provided, however, that cables shall be placed at such depth as not to interfere with the ordinary use of said land, and the Defendants and their heirs and assigns shall have the right to cultivate and otherwise use said right of way insofar as such does not interfere with or obstruct the use of said right of way by the Plaintiff, its successors and assigns, for the construction, operation, maintenance or removal of said telephone, telegraph and communications system; and provided further that the Defendants and their heirs and assigns shall be paid for any damages on said land that shall be caused by or result from the construction, maintenance, repairing or removing of said telephone, telegraph and communications system. IT IS FURTHER DECREED that the Defendants, their heirs and assigns, may place railroad spur tracks, roads, streets (private or public) or drainage structures over, across or through the twenty-foot wide right of way herein described and that the placing of such will not constitute interference with such easement and that Southwestern Bell Telephone Company does not have the right to prevent the placing by anyone with a legal right to do so, railroad spur tracks, roads, streets (private or public) or drainage structures, over, across or through the easement herein described. IT IS FURTHER DECREED that Southwestern Bell Telephone Company does not have any right by ingress or egress over and across any part of the 22.2 acre tract of land herein described, except the twenty-foot wide strip of right of way. The exact description of the right-of-way easement is as follows:
“A strip of land twenty (20) feet wide, the centerline of which begins on the West property line of said twenty-two and two-tenths (22.2) acre-tract at a point ten (10) feet North of the Southwest corner of said tract, thence Easterly 1,165 feet parallel with the South Boundary Line of said tract to a point on the East property line of the twenty-two and two-tenths (22.2) acre-tract, ten (10) feet North of the Southeast corner of said following described 22.2 acre tract.”
(Note: The metes and bounds description of the 22.2 acres of land as it appears in the judgment at this point is omitted).
“All rights in, and to, said land, not inconsistent with the right-of-way easement granted to the plaintiff, are reserved by and to the defendants and such easement does not include title to the mineral estate under the defendants’ land.”

Appellant has briefed these points of error, to-wit:

“FIRST POINT. The Trial Court erred in submitting Special Issues No. 3 and No. 4 on damage to the remainder because as a matter of law, no damage to the remainder was shown by Appel-lees and thus, the jury was allowed to award erroneous damages.
“SECOND POINT. There being no evidence to support a finding that the value of the remainder of the tract was reduced from $1,150 to $400 per average acre, the Trial Court erred in overruling Appellant’s Motion to Disregard Finding to Special Issue No. 4 and Appellant’s Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding Jury’s Finding to Special Issue No. 4.
[146]*146“THIRD POINT. There being insufficient evidence to support a finding that the value of the remainder of the tract was reduced from $1,150 to $400 per average acre, the Trial Court erred in overruling Appellant’s Motion to Disregard Finding to Special Issue No. 4 and Appellant’s Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding Jury’s Finding to Special Issue No. 4.
“FOURTH POINT. The Trial Court erred in entering judgment for Appellees for the sum of $12,500 because such sum was excessive.”

The first and second points of error are conventional no evidence points. Evidence was adduced that industrial development was the highest and best use to which the original tract could be devoted. Appellant argues strenuously that access from the residue of the 22.2 acre tract to the railroad was not lost, under the terms of the judgment, as a result of the severance of the easement. From that base it is argued that the value opinions

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
456 S.W.2d 143, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2433, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southwestern-bell-telephone-co-v-west-texapp-1970.