Title: Fox v. Ohio Valley Gas Corp.
Citation: 235 N.E.2d 168, 250 Ind. 111
Docket Number: 468S57
State: Indiana
Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court
Date: April 2, 1968

250 Ind. 111 (1968)
235 N.E.2d 168
FOX ET AL.
v.
OHIO VALLEY GAS CORPORATION ET AL.
Consolidated No. 468S57.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed April 2, 1968.
Cecil C. Tague, Sr., Roger H. Smith and Tague &amp; Smith, of Brookville, for appellants.
Ewbank &amp; Meyer, of Lawrenceburg, Paul D. Lawson, of Columbus, and Mendenhall, Hunter &amp; Stohler, of Winchester, for appellees.
*112 Amici Curiae for certain Indiana public utilities, Thompson, O'Neal &amp; Smith, Patrick J. Smith and James R. McClarnon, of Indianapolis, for Citizens Gas &amp; Coke Utility; Hyle G. Burke and Bruce N. Cracraft, of Indianapolis, for Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Inc.; Jerry P. Belknap, Ralph W. Husted and Marcus E. Woods, of Indianapolis, for Indianapolis Power &amp; Light Company; Paul G. Jasper and Charles W. Campbell, of Plainfield, for Public Service Company of Indiana, Inc.; Arch N. Bobbitt, of Indianapolis, for Illinois Bell Telephone Company; John E. Fell, of Kokomo Gas &amp; Fuel Co.; G.R. Redding and Virgil L. Beeler, of Indianapolis, for Indianapolis Water Company; Frederick P. Bamberger, of Evansville, for Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Company; John F. Bodle, of Lafayette, for General Telephone Company of Indiana, Inc.; Fred F. Eichhorn, Jr. of Hammond, and William F. Welch, of Indianapolis, for Northern Indiana Public Service Company; George P. Osborn, of Marion, for Central Indiana Gas Company, Inc., Greenfield Gas Company, Inc., and Indiana Gas Distribution Corporation; Howard J. Cofield, of Indianapolis, for Kokomo Water Works Company, Muncie Water Works Company, Richmond Water Works Corporation and the Terre Haute Water Works Corporation; Von E. Livingston and David B. Keller, of Fort Wayne, for Indiana &amp; Michigan Electric Company; and Charles M. Wells, of Indianapolis, for Indiana Gas &amp; Water Company, Inc.
ARTERBURN, J.
This case comes to us on transfer from the Appellate Court of Indiana under Acts 1901, ch. 247, § 10, p. 565; 1933, ch. 151, § 1, p. 800, being Burns' Ind. Stat. Anno. § 4-215 [1956 Repl.]. See 222 N.E.2d 412 and 228 N.E.2d 42 for opinions of Appellate Court.
This is an appeal from a judgment rendered in favor of appellees' pipe line companies in the Dearborn Circuit Court without a jury in three separate actions for injunction instituted by each of the appellants, wherein they ask for injunction against the appellee, Ohio Valley Gas Corporation, and *113 appellee, McGuire Pipe Line Construction Company from constructing a gas pipe line upon a county highway right-of-way, the fee of which is owned by the appellants, subject to the easement of the corporations.
The basic facts are uncontroverted in that the appellants own the fee simple title to property which abuts upon Yorkville Road and which is located in Dearborn County, Indiana. The appellee, Ohio Valley Gas Corporation, entered into a contract with the Board of County Commissioners of Dearborn County to lay a pipe line along said right-of-way of the Yorkville Road and along that part of the Yorkville Road of which appellants were the fee simple title holders, subject to the easement. The gas corporation is a public utility organized under the laws of the State of Indiana and engaged in the purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of natural gas to the public located within its territory and is authorized by the Public Service Commission of Indiana to render gas distribution service to rural customers residing within the area of one mile on either side of said proposed pipe line and to customers residing within the city limits of Connersville, Indiana, and rural areas adjacent thereto.
The McGuire Pipe Line Construction Company is an Indiana corporation under contract with the appellee, Ohio Valley Gas Corporation, to construct the pipe line in question. The gas corporation claims the right to use the county highway for pipe line purposes pursuant to a contract entered into between the Board of County Commissioners of Dearborn County and the Ohio Valley Gas Corporation pursuant to Acts 1947, ch. 151, § 3, p. 473, being Burns' Ind. Stat. Anno. § 36-718 [1949 Repl.], which reads as follows:
The trial court, in special findings and conclusions of law, denied injunctive relief to the abutting property owners, appellants herein. From this judgment the appeal is taken by the appellants.
The question presented on this appeal is essentially whether or not a public utility duly authorized to transmit gas through a pipe line for public use may construct and lay such pipe line in the public highway without the consent of the abutting land owners who claim that such use is an additional burden and servitude to the fee which is subject to the easement for highway purposes.
In Kincaid v. Indianapolis Natural Gas Company et al. (1890), 124 Ind. 577, 24 N.E. 1066, the Indianapolis Natural Gas Company laid pipe lines in a county road for the purpose of supplying citizens of the City of Indianapolis pursuant to a license granted by the Board of County Commissioners. Judge Elliott, speaking for the court, said in that case (124 Ind. at 579 and 24 N.E. at 1067):
The court held, however, that the appellant was not entitled to an injunction to prevent the laying of the pipe lines, but *115 only to an action of damages. In other words, it recognized the public use and necessity involved, and the right to condemn for a public purpose. It has been pointed out that the statement of Judge Elliott in this case with reference to a distinction between urban and suburban highways is dicta and not essential to the decision made.
Shortly thereafter this Court had before it the case of Magee v. Overshiner (1898), 150 Ind. 127, 49 N.E. 951. The appellants also rely upon this case. In the Magee case, the owner of a telephone system sought to place poles and lines in the streets within the City of Logansport. The abutting property owner along the street where the poles were placed brought an injunction to prevent the use of the street by the telephone system. This Court held, after a considerable discussion of the principles involved, that the placing of poles and lines by a telephone company in city streets was not a new or additional servitude for which abutting property owners were entitled to compensation or complain. That case repeated the distinction made between county roads, highways and streets within cities. Judge Elliott's publication, The Law of Roads and Streets, 299 (1890) was cited and quoted:
No authorities are cited in his treatise in support of this statement. This is the same statement Judge Elliott made in his opinion in the Kincaid case. We can find no substantial basis for the distinction made, nor any sound reasoning in connection with it.
The Magee case points out that as cities expand and take over county roads and they become streets, the abutting land owners must lose certain rights in county roads which become city streets. Query: If they had certain rights therein *116 originally, how can urban expansion take such rights from them? The reasoning of the court in the Magee case, however, reaches a better ground for understanding when it states: 150 Ind. 127, at 129-130, 49 N.E. 951-952:
Shortly thereafter this Court held logically in Coburn v. New Telephone Co. (1901), 156 Ind. 90, 50 N.E. 324 that the laying of an underground conduit carrying telephone lines in city streets was not an additional servitude to abutting property owners. In Mordhurst v. Ft. Wayne and Southwestern Traction Co. (1904), 163 Ind. 268, 71 N.E. 642 this Court held the laying of tracks by a street railway within the city could not be objected to by abutting property owners.
In 1942 this Court decided the case of New York Central R. Co. v. Yarian (1942), 219 Ind. 477, 39 N.E.2d 604. In that case a land owner reserved a crossing over a railroad right of way dividing his farm. The land owner sought to place an iron pipe as a conduit for electric wires under the right of way in order to serve both parts of his farm. The appellant railroad brought an action to have the lines and conduit removed. Judge Fansler, speaking for the court, said:
It seems to us there is sound logic and reasoning to support the decision in the Yarian case.
With the growth of population, advancement of commerce and new inventions, society must adjust itself from existing conditions to growing and changed conditions and specifically to new means of transportation. A dedication of land for highway purposes when made is deemed to comprehend not only specific uses in the minds of the parties at the time, but also those developed and invented, which fall into the category of transportation in the future. Industry has found it more feasible, for example, to move oil or gas through pipe lines in many instances, rather than by truck on the surface along the highways. Courts must recognize these advances in the science of transporation.
Likewise, we find no basis for a distinction to be made between city streets and rural highways as to the use of *119 utility facilities therein and thereon. We can find no logical basis for the distinction attempted to have been made by Judge Elliott in the early case of Kincaid v. Indianapolis Natural Gas Co. et al. (1890), 124 Ind. 577, 24 N.E. 1066 and which in our opinion was unnecessary to that decision.
Transfer is granted from the Appellate Court, and the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Lewis, C.J. and Mote, Hunter and Jackson, JJ. concur.
NOTE.  Reported in 235 N.E.2d 168.