Williams Feed, Inc. v. State, Department of Transportation

2007 MT 79, 155 P.3d 1228, 336 Mont. 493, 2007 Mont. LEXIS 116
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 20, 2007
DocketNo. DA 06-0391
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2007 MT 79 (Williams Feed, Inc. v. State, Department of Transportation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams Feed, Inc. v. State, Department of Transportation, 2007 MT 79, 155 P.3d 1228, 336 Mont. 493, 2007 Mont. LEXIS 116 (Mo. 2007).

Opinions

JUSTICE LEAPHART

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 Williams Feed, Inc., Kim F. Williams, and Sharon Williams (collectively the Williamses) appeal from the order of the Fifth Judicial District Court, Beaverhead County, denying their motion for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial. We affirm the District Court.

¶2 We state the issues as follows:

¶3 1. Was the evidence sufficient to support the jury verdict in favor of the State of Montana Department of Transportation (Department)?

¶4 2. Did the District Court abuse its discretion in denying the Williamses’ motion for a new trial alleging jury misconduct?

¶5 3. Did the District Court abuse its discretion in excluding from evidence three right-of-way agreements between the Department and other property owners abutting North Montana Street?

¶6 4. Did the District Court abuse its discretion in excluding testimony from the Dillon Chief of Police?

BACKGROUND

¶7 Kim and Sharon Williams owned and operated Williams Feed, Inc., in Dillon, Montana, and Sheridan, Montana. Three of the buildings the Williamses owned and used for their business were located on North Montana Street in Dillon. The land was leased from the Union Pacific Railroad Company. The Williamses’ fertilizer plant, [495]*495located in one of the buildings on North Montana Street, was the lifeblood of the business.

¶8 In November of 2002, the Montana Transportation Commission adopted a resolution that established limited access control on the west side of a four-block section of North Montana Street, including the Williamses’ property. The plan included installing curbs along the street with curb cuts to access the properties. In the initial phase of construction, the Williamses negotiated with the Department to make adjustments to the size and location of the curb cuts that allowed access to their property. The Williamses assured Department representatives that their business would not be negatively impacted by the highway project. The construction project began in April of2004 and was completed in October of 2005.

¶9 On January 10, 2005, the Williamses filed an action for inverse condemnation. They alleged that the limited access designation amounted to a taking because it denied the Williamses reasonable access to their property. Prior to reconstruction, fertilizer trucks were able to access the property anywhere along the street. The surface surrounding the plant was dirt and gravel, which was level with the edge of the asphalt on the street. The reconstruction made access available only through forty-foot and fifty-foot wide curb cuts. Further, prior to reconstruction, truck drivers were able to use the width of North Montana Street to maneuver their trucks into the plant’s receiving area. After the street was designated a limited access highway, truck drivers were no longer able to make such maneuvers on the street. The Williamses alleged that fertilizer trucks were no longer able to make deliveries because the trucks did not have room between the plant’s receiving area and the curb to stay off the street. The fertilizer plant ceased operations in June 2004, and Williams Feed, Inc., shut down entirely in December 2004.

¶10 Prior to trial, the court determined that the only issue to be decided by the jury was whether the Williamses were denied reasonable access to their property. Reasonable access was defined as free and convenient access.

¶11 The Williamses’ proposed trial exhibits included right-of-way agreements made between the Department and three other property owners, all agricultural businesses along North Montana Street, that were impacted by the same project. The District Court excluded the documents as being irrelevant. The District Court also excluded an affidavit the Williamses obtained from Dillon Chief of Police John Gutcheck regarding the legality of maneuvering trucks on North [496]*496Montana Street.

¶12 At trial, both sides introduced evidence as to whether the Williamses had been denied reasonable access to their property. The Williamses’ main contention was that delivery trucks could no longer access the property to make deliveries, and without deliveries, they could not conduct their fertilizer business. Kim Williams testified as follows: Prior to reconstruction, trucks could pull in anywhere along approximately 575 feet of road in front of the fertilizer plant. Although the area was often congested with their own equipment and other delivery trucks, the fertilizer trucks could maneuver safely without encroaching onto the street because there was no curb. The gravel in front of the building made it easier to maneuver a large truck. After reconstruction, much of the area in front of the plant was asphalt, which was harder to turn on because the truck tires would grab. This newly paved area-from the boundary of the plant property to the curb-was considered a truck frontage road, which was thirty-two feet nine inches wide. There was a six inch drop from the frontage road curb to the actual street. The new construction created a problem because drivers could not safely get trucks off the street through the narrow curb cuts without running over the curb. Running over the curb was illegal and could damage the delivery equipment.

¶13 William Wehri, the manager at the fertilizer plant testified that the plant would receive deliveries by trucks ranging from sixty-five to one hundred feet in length. He further testified as follows: The usual delivery trucks were Super B and A Train trucks, which were a combination of a tractor, a main trailer, and a pup trailer. The plant had the ability to receive deliveries pneumatically by blowing product from the truck through a hose into the delivery plant. Use of the pneumatic system, however, blocked access for other trucks trying to load mixed fertilizer and service customers. Unloading product pneumatically cost approximately $2.60 more per ton. The plant had the pneumatic delivery system in place for several years prior to the start of the road reconstruction. However, Kim Williams had testified that some of the products could not be delivered pneumatically because it would ruin the product. Wehri stated that they could request delivery of the product in a specific type of truck and trailer combination. He also testified that the combination trucks could be unhooked and the pup trailer could be pushed into the receiving area with a power unit.

¶14 The Williamses introduced a video of a truck driver, Gary Rude, failing in his attempts to back his fertilizer truck into the receiving [497]*497area of the fertilizer plant. Jerry Hillier, another truck driver involved in the video demonstration, testified that he had delivered products to Williams Feed approximately ten to fifteen times per year prior to reconstruction. He stated that prior to reconstruction, there was enough room in front of the fertilizer plant to allow him to jackknife the entire trailer and pup into position to deliver the load. Hillier testified that after reconstruction, there was no longer enough room to deliver the load while staying off the street and keeping the tires from running off the curb. The truck used in the Williamses’ demonstration was sixty-eight feet long.

¶15 The Department also introduced a video of one of its employee truck drivers, Russ Sutton, attempting to back a truck into the receiving area of the fertilizer plant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2007 MT 79, 155 P.3d 1228, 336 Mont. 493, 2007 Mont. LEXIS 116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-feed-inc-v-state-department-of-transportation-mont-2007.