Texas Gas Transmission Corporation v. Hebert

207 So. 2d 368
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 24, 1968
Docket2123
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 207 So. 2d 368 (Texas Gas Transmission Corporation v. Hebert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas Gas Transmission Corporation v. Hebert, 207 So. 2d 368 (La. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

207 So.2d 368 (1967)

TEXAS GAS TRANSMISSION CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Woodley HEBERT, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 2123.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

October 27, 1967.
On Rehearing January 18, 1968.
Dissenting Opinion January 24, 1968.
Rehearing Denied February 7, 1968.

*369 Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, by Lucius F. Suthon, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellant.

McBride & Brewster, by William L. Brewster, Lafayette, for defendant-appellee.

Before FRUGEé, SAVOY, and LEAR, JJ.

LEAR, Judge.

Texas Gas Transmission Corporation, a Delaware corporation, authorized to do and doing business in the State of Louisiana and operating under a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the Federal Power Commission, embarked upon the construction of a 20-inch high-pressure natural gas pipeline, referred to as the Maurice-Freshwater Bayou Line.

*370 Being unable to conventionally acquire a servitude across defendant's land, it resorted to this expropriation suit.

The trial court had little difficulty in ruling that petitioner had the power to acquire rights-of-way by expropriation. This court agrees with and affirms that ruling. See L.R.S. 19:2(7).

Neither the necessity for this particular pipeline nor the situs of the servitude was at issue in the district court and, accordingly, is not at issue here.

The trial court established values of that acreage included within the servitude itself, the value of a temporary right-of-way to be enjoyed by petitioner only during the course of construction, severance damages to the remainder of defendant's property and set expert fees for certain witnesses.

Petitioner, objecting to the judgment a qua as it related to values and damages, perfected appeal to this court.

Defendant's 77 acres to be traversed by this pipeline lies approximately eight miles south of the City of Lafayette and approximately one-half mile west of Louisiana Highway 167. When viewed on the map, the property is somewhat in the shape of an inverted "U", the legs of the "U" fronting on a public road. The proposed 50-foot servitude runs generally northeast-southwest and traverses the northwest corner of defendant's property, not, however, interfering with his road frontage.

This property has always been devoted to agricultural pursuits, but as is invariably the case in matters of this sort, the various experts were widely divergent as to the evaluation of the land. The reason for this divergence is the presence of the `highest and best' rule used in assessing value of property taken by eminent domain.

Louisiana Civil Code Article 2633 provides that the basis of the assessment shall be the true value which the land possessed before the contemplated improvement was proposed. In construing value, the courts have always followed the rule set down in State v. Dowling, 205 La. 1061, 18 So.2d 616, wherein the Supreme Court considered true value to be synonymous with market value and defined market value as the "* * * fair value between one who wants to purchase and one who wants to sell under usual and ordinary circumstances." This concept is seemingly simple and uncomplicated and susceptible to ready application, but is further complicated by the doctrine as expressed in City of New Orleans v. Moeglich, 169 La. 1111, 126 So. 675, 678, wherein it was announced that in considering the market value of property there must be taken into consideration the use to which the property may be applied and all the uses to which it is adapted. Of course, this adaptability (the property's best and highest use) must not be remote but must be the use to which the land may reasonably be put in the not too distant future.

Mr. Maurice Chappuis testified on behalf of plaintiff as an expert real estate appraiser. He classified the highest and best use of the property as `suburban rural acreage'. He admits that this term is not subject to exact definition, but after discussing comparable sales in the general area and analyzing various factors affecting property values in that area, he reached a conclusion that the subject property would have a market value of $750.00 per acre.

Mr. George Parker was also an expert realtor called by plaintiff. He stated that the highest and best use of the property was agricultural, with the exception that the portion of the property fronting on the road could be classified as rural residential. After making his comparisons of like properties and analyzing the other factors involved, he decided that the land would be worth approximately $600.00 an acre.

The defendant called Mr. Gordon Hamner who was accepted as an expert appraiser. He testified that the property fronting on the road should be valued at *371 approximately $2,000.00 an acre, whereas the property to the rear would be considered high-priced farm land and valued at $1,000.00 an acre.

Mr. Preston Babineaux was accepted as an expert realtor and appraiser on behalf of defendant. He considered the highest and best use of the property as suburban development. He agreed with Mr. Hamner on values.

The trial court concluded `with little difficulty' that the property in question was not, at the time of the condemnation, being put to its highest and best use. He considered the growth factor in Lafayette Parish with its concomitant demand for homesites in the suburban and rural areas near the City of Lafayette, Louisiana, and concluded that the highest and best use to which this property can be put is suburban residential. Thereupon, he agreed with defendant's experts and established an evaluation of $1,000.00 an acre on the land in question. This court feels such a valuation to be generous. However, in the absence of any manifest error on the part of the trial court and in deference to its superior knowledge of local conditions, taken with the fact that he had the opportunity to personally hear and observe the witnesses, we concur in his conclusion.

Finding .9 of an acre encompassed within the boundaries of the permanent servitude, the trial court awarded defendant the sum of $900.00, saying:

"The Court concludes that there is little difference between the value of a right-of-way in a case of this kind and the land acquired in it, and consequently the Court will place full value on the said right-of-way."

Though the author of this generality can find comfort in the pronouncement of Chief Justice O'Neill to the effect that there is not much difference between the value of the right-of-way or servitude and the land embraced in it (Texas Pipeline Co. v. National Gasoline Co., 203 La. 787, 14 So.2d 636), this court feels that the announced principle is not now the law of the land. See Colonial Pipeline Co. v. Babineaux, La.App. 3 Cir., 1963, 154 So.2d 594; Texas Gas Transmission Corp. v. Broussard, La.App. 3 Cir., 1967, 196 So.2d 620. Following the formula announced in those cases, we find that the judgment of the district court should be amended to provide that the plaintiff should be cast in judgment in the amount of 75% of $900.00 or the sum of $675.00.

The trial court next considered the problem of severance damages. It concluded that 11 acres of the defendant's property suffered a diminution in value as a result of the installation of this 20-inch natural gas high-pressure line, causing "fright, fear and frustration to some prospective purchasers".

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207 So. 2d 368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-gas-transmission-corporation-v-hebert-lactapp-1968.