Case Title: STATE EX REL. NORTHERN INDIANA PUBLIC SERVICE CO. v. Elkhart Superior Court, Room One

Citation: 556 N.E.2d 326

Docket Number: 20S00-8911-OR-862

State: indiana

Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Date: 1990-07-11T00:00:00Z

Document:
556 N.E.2d 326 (1990)
STATE of Indiana On the Relation of Northern Indiana Public Service Company, Relator,
v.
The ELKHART SUPERIOR COURT, ROOM ONE and the Honorable Donald W. Jones, As Judge Thereof, Respondents.
No. 20S00-8911-OR-862.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
July 11, 1990.
*327 Paul A. Rake, Eichhorn, Eichhorn & Link, Hammond, for relator.
Gordon Lord, Yoder, Ainlay, Ulmer & Buckingham, Goshen, for defendants in Trial Court.
SHEPARD, Chief Justice.
Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), a public utility, sought a writ of mandamus to compel a trial court to grant a motion for change of venue in a condemnation proceeding. We denied the writ and now record the basis for our denial.
On March 15, 1989, NIPSCO filed a complaint in the Elkhart Superior Court seeking to condemn an easement for the construction of an electrical transmission circuit in Elkhart County, Indiana. One part of the easement sought burdened land owned by Donald O. and Martha J. Haab.
The trial court held a hearing pursuant to Ind. Code § 32-11-1-4 and determined that the necessary elements were present for an appropriation of the Haab's property. On May 10, 1989, the court ordered the appropriation of the easement and appointed appraisers to determine the Haabs' loss.
The appraisers filed their report on August 10, 1989. On August 23, 1989, the court issued its order on the report of the appraisers. NIPSCO filed objections to the report and moved for a change of venue on August 31, 1989.
The trial court granted the motion for change of venue on the day it was made and gave the parties fourteen days to complete the striking process. After the parties completed the striking process, however, the court withheld the change of venue order stating:
Record at 64.
NIPSCO brought this original action. In its brief, NIPSCO argued that it was entitled to a change of venue because its motion for the change was filed within ten days of its exceptions to the report of the appraisers. It acknowledged caselaw applying Ind.Trial Rule 76(3) to the appropriation phase of a condemnation proceeding, but argued that doing so does not foreclose application of Ind.Trial Rule 76(2) to the damages phase of the proceeding.
Indiana Trial Rule 76 states in pertinent part:
We discussed the applicability of T.R. 76 to condemnation proceedings in State of Indiana v. Porter Circuit Court (1985), Ind., 486 N.E.2d 529. In Porter, the trial court refused to grant the State's motion for change of venue which was filed nineteen days after the complaint for appropriation. We issued an Alternative Writ of Mandamus and Prohibition directing the judge to order the change of venue. The opinion examined this Court's prior application of T.R. 76 in condemnation cases and then stated:
486 N.E.2d  at 530.
The trial court correctly applied Porter to this case. A party to a single civil action is entitled to only one change from county and one change from judge. Although a condemnation proceeding has two phases, it is still a single civil action. As we said in Porter, T.R. 76(3) determines when the available change from county or judge must be sought in a condemnation proceeding. If the parties fail to move for a change of venue within 30 days of the filing of the original complaint they are precluded from doing so later in the proceeding.
Upon these grounds, we deny the petition for a writ.
DeBRULER, GIVAN, PIVARNIK and DICKSON, JJ., concur.