Opinion ID: 2405402
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: damages for loss of business during construction period

Text: There is another serious error in the case, in addition to error in the instructions, which requires reversal of the judgment. It arises from the fact that over the objections of the Commonwealth the lessees of the restaurant were allowed to assert a claim, and were awarded damages of $8,500, for loss of profits during the period the highway was under construction. We have had no reported cases in Kentucky specifically deciding the question of whether recovery may be had by an abutting property owner for damages for loss of business resulting from the temporary closing or obstruction of a highway during a period of construction work on the highway. However, the prevailing rule in other jurisdictions is that such damages are not recoverable. See 18 Am.Jur., Eminent Domain, Sec. 142, p. 770; Annotation, 68 A.L.R. 340; 4 Nichols on Eminent Domain, 3rd Ed., Sec. 13.32, p. 272; 29 C.J.S. Eminent Domain, § 113, p. 925; 29 C.J.S. Eminent Domain § 162, p. 1032. Our research indicates that in those cases where recovery has been allowed there has been some element of an unnecessary closing or interference. See Wine v. Commonwealth, 301 Mass. 451, 17 N.E.2d 445, 120 A.L.R. 889; Annotation, 120 A.L.R. 900. The reasoning behind the majority rule seems to be that the abutting owner has no property right in the continued maintenance of the highway. This is in accord with the rule in this jurisdiction that the abutting owner's right in the highway is only the right of reasonable access to the highway system. Commonwealth Dept. of Highways v. Carlisle, Ky., 363 S.W.2d 104. This has to mean that he has only the right of access to such highways, and of such surface condition,  as the state chooses to provide in the reasonable administration of its highway system. The abutting owner certainly has no property right to have a highway of a particular surface or pavement. The evidence in the instant case shows that on only four occasions during the eight-month construction period was access to the restaurant from the highway blocked. The evidence does not show what period of time was involved on each occasion, but presumably it was only a matter of hours. We think that such comparatively insignificant blocking of access cannot be considered a compensable interference with the owner's right of reasonable access, because the right must yield some to the necessities of highway construction work. It is clear that the basis of the claim for damages here is loss of business resulting from the torn-up condition of the surface of the highway, rather than interference with access to the highway. Such loss is not compensable because it differs only in degree, and not in kind, from the loss suffered by the public generally from highway construction work. Cf. Department of Highways v. Jackson, Ky., 302 S.W.2d 373. The so-called reverse condemnation cases relied upon by the lessees here, such as Commonwealth v. Kelley, 314 Ky. 581, 236 S.W.2d 695, are not applicable because they involved a taking of property, whereas here there is no such taking because the abutting owner has no property right in the continued maintenance of the particular highway. Standiford Civic Club v. Commonwealth, Ky., 289 S.W.2d 498, on the point for which the appellees cite it, was overruled by Department of Highways v. Jackson, Ky., 302 S.W.2d 373.