Opinion ID: 2587884
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: land description/inverse condemnation

Text: Next, Winkel complains that KDOT manipulated the condemnation appraisers by the manner in which the land was described in the petition. KDOT listed the legal description of the two tracts being taken. Winkel believes the petition should have, in some manner, described the tracts as being a part of the whole farm, so that the appraisal report would have included the reduction in value on the remaining approximately 78 acres occasioned by the taking of the two, physically separated tracts. Therefore, Winkel included a claim for inverse condemnation, seeking the alleged devaluation of the remaining land. K.S.A. 68-413(b)(2) directs that every condemnation petition filed by the Secretary of Transportation shall set forth the extent, quantity and nature of the interest or title to be acquired. Here, KDOT precisely complied with that statute. See also K.S.A. 26-502 (contents of eminent domain petition). Winkel's complaint about the condemnation petition is unfounded. Likewise, Winkel's purported claim for inverse condemnation is unavailing. Winkel I clarified that Winkel did not have an action for inverse condemnation for any reduction in value of the remaining land caused by KDOT's operation of the asphalt mixing strip, i.e., the noise, odor, dust, or pollution from the operations did not effect a taking of the remaining land. Any compensable reduction in the remaining land's value must flow directly from the taking of the easements on the triangle and access tracts. The damage caused by KDOT's taking is the subject of the existing formal condemnation proceedings. An inverse condemnation proceeding... is available when private property has been taken for public use without the initiation of formal condemnation proceedings by the governmental taker. (Emphasis added.) Schuck, 286 Kan. at 28, 180 P.3d 571. This rule is well established. See Kau Kau Take Home No. 1 v. City of Wichita, 281 Kan. 1185, 1189, 135 P.3d 1221 (2006) (inverse condemnation action arises when formal condemnation proceedings have not been filed); Nat'l Compressed Steel Corp. v. Unified Gov't of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, 272 Kan. 1239, 1245, 38 P.3d 723 (2002) (inverse condemnation action available only where private property has been actually taken for public use without formal condemnation proceedings and it appears that there is no intention or willingness of the taker to bring such proceedings); Deisher v. Kansas Dept. of Transportation, 264 Kan. 762, 766, 958 P.2d 656 (1998) (`[A]n inverse condemnation proceeding is a substitute for a formal condemnation proceeding. It is not a supplement for a formal proceeding that does not yield all of the satisfaction that a landowner desires.'). Accordingly, summary judgment denying Winkel's inverse condemnation claim was appropriate. Winkel's real complaint is with the manner in which the appraisers valued the land. He contends that they treated the case as being a taking of two entire tracts, rather than a partial taking from a larger tract. The appraisers were instructed on K.S.A. 26-513, which sets forth guidance for valuing condemned land. Part of that instruction is that if an entire tract of land is taken, the measure of compensation is the fair market value of the property at the time of taking. K.S.A. 26-513(b). However, if only a part of a tract of land is taken, the compensation and measure of damages is the difference between the fair market value of the entire property before the taking, and the value of that portion of the tract which remains immediately after the taking. K.S.A. 26-513(c). However, the appraisers sent mixed signals as to the measure of damages they were employing. In their report, the appraisers noted that they had begun the process by actual view of the lands to be taken and of the tracts of which they are a part. Further, they submitted a value for the two tracts before taking and a value after taking. This suggests that the appraisers were treating this case as a partial taking under K.S.A. 26-513(c). However, they only submitted a dollar amount for the pre-taking value of the two tracts, standing alone, which suggests an entire taking under K.S.A. 26-513(b). If they had considered the two tracts as being taken from the entire farm, the appraisal should have set forth a value for the entire farm (including the 2 acres to be taken) before the taking and the value of the approximately 78 remaining acres after the taking. Of course, any valuation of the triangle tract, whether standing alone or included in the entire farm, should have taken into consideration that it was already encumbered by a highway right of way easement. Likewise, one might debate whether land which has previously been partially taken and physically separated from the remaining farm continues to be a part of the larger tract. Nevertheless, the bottom-line question is the amount of just compensation to be paid for the land or the interest therein being taken by KDOT, which is the sole issue now pending in Winkel's appeal of the condemnation award. K.S.A. 26-508. Winkel is free to challenge the appraisers' methodology or valuation in that proceeding. A separate inverse condemnation action is neither necessary nor permissible.