Opinion ID: 1829652
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Heading Rank: 2

Heading: is an eminent domain court prohibited from trying title?

Text: Until 1971, the jurisdiction of the court of eminent domain was exercised by a justice of the peace and a jury. Code of 1892, ch. 40, § 1680; Code of 1906, ch. 43, § 1855; Code of 1927, ch. 24, § 1561; Code of 1930, ch. 26, § 1481; Mississippi Code of 1942 § 2750. The function of the justice of the peace, in an eminent domain proceeding, was ministerial rather than judicial. In fulfilling that function, the justice could only take those steps as were precisely marked out by the statute. Sullivan v. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Co., 85 Miss. 649, 660, 38 So. 33, 34 (1904). In 1971, the Legislature revised the statutes on eminent domain by repealing those sections dealing with eminent domain, §§ 2749-2782 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, and reenacting a new chapter. 1971 General Laws of Mississippi, ch. 520. The reenactment is codified in chapter 27 of the Mississippi Code of 1972. See Miss. Code Ann. §§ 11-27-1 to 11-27-91 (1972 & Supp. 1990). Jurisdiction of the special court of eminent domain is now exercised by virtue of Miss. Code Ann. § 11-27-3 (1972) which reads: A special court of eminent domain is hereby created, to consist of a judge, jury, and such other officers and personnel as hereinafter set out, and it shall have and exercise the jurisdiction and powers hereinafter enumerated. The original powers and jurisdiction shall be and is hereby fixed in the county court in each county that has elected to come under the provisions of section 9-9-1 Mississippi Code of 1972, or that may hereafter come under the provisions of said section 9-9-1, and in every other county of this state, the original powers and jurisdiction shall be and is hereby fixed in the circuit court of such county, which said powers and jurisdiction may be exercised in full either in termtime or vacation, or both. Historically, this Court has limited the subject matter jurisdiction of the court of eminent domain. No statute, the Court has said, gives the court of eminent domain any power other than the power to determine the amount of compensation. The Court has thus limited the jurisdiction based on a strict construction of the eminent domain statutes. However, the Legislature has made changes in the statutes dealing with eminent domain over the years. An examination of those changes reveals that the reasoning upon which this Court relied to limit the jurisdiction of the eminent domain court is no longer viable. Those cases which address the limited jurisdiction of an eminent domain court usually do so when Section 17 of the Mississippi Constitution is involved, i.e. a challenge is made as to whether the contemplated use is public. Section 17 provides that [p]rivate property shall not be taken or damaged for public use, except on due compensation being first made to the owner or owners thereof, in a manner to be prescribed by law; and whenever an attempt is made to take private property for a use alleged to be public, the question whether the contemplated use be public shall be a judicial question, and, as such, determined without regard to legislative assertion that the use is public. In Vinegar Bend Lumber Co. v. Oak Grove & Georgetown Railroad Co., 89 Miss. 84, 43 So. 292 (1906), this Court discussed at some length the limited jurisdiction of an eminent domain court in relation to a question raised under Section 17. The right to take private property is a judicial question, made so by the constitution, and no form of charter, or powers granted in the charter, can take the settlement of this question away from the courts. The right to condemn and take is dependent upon two things: First, a provision in the charter authorizing it; and, second, that the right will be exercised for only such purposes as the constitution allows private property to be taken, to-wit: for public purposes. Section 1680, Code 1892, provides for the creation of a special court of eminent domain to exercise the jurisdiction and powers enumerated in the chapter. Section 1681 provides how the court shall be organized... . On a review of the whole chapter on the subject of eminent domain, we unhesitatingly arrive at the conclusion that the legislature never intended to create a tribunal of full jurisdiction to try any and all issues that might be raised on the subject of the right to condemn. The court created by this chapter is a special court, created for a special purpose, having an exceedingly limited jurisdiction, exercising no judicial functions, and clothed with the power to try the only issue that is confided to it by the statute; and that issue is, singly and solely, to fix the compensation which shall be paid to the landowner for his land... . The chapter itself presupposes that the right to condemn property exists, and there is no provision made in the whole chapter on this subject giving to the eminent domain court the power to adjudicate the issue as to whether or not the right to exercise the power of eminent domain does or does not exist. The sole and only power conferred by this chapter, from its first section to its last, is the right, and the right only, to ascertain and fix compensation for the taking of the land where the right to do so exists. Vinegar Bend, 89 Miss. at 104-105, 43 So. at 295. In other words, this Court was saying that the eminent domain court has no authority to decide whether the condemnor has the right to take the land. The Court said that question must be tried by injunction in chancery court. As additional support for limiting the jurisdiction of the eminent domain court to the one narrow issue of determining compensation, the Court cited section 1862 of the Code of 1906 which prohibited a justice of the peace from quashing or dismissing the proceedings. The Court said that dismissal might be necessary if any defense offered by the pleas were found by the court to be true. Until 1930, the Court continued to hold that the only way to test the question of the right to take was by injunction. See Dantzler v. Mississippi State Highway Commission, 187 Miss. 721, 193 So. 4 (1940). However, the Code of 1930 included a new section, Section 1510, in the chapter on eminent domain. That statute allowed for a writ of prohibition to test the questions of (1) whether the applicant seeking to exercise the right of eminent domain is, in character, such a corporation, association, district or other legal entity as is entitled to the right, and/or (2) whether there is a public necessity for the taking of the particular property or a part thereof which it is proposed to condemn. After Section 1510 was added to allow the writ of prohibition, this Court again considered the question of the jurisdiction of the eminent domain court and reaffirmed its previous decisions limiting that court's jurisdiction. In Mississippi State Highway Commission v. Channell, 241 Miss. 290, 130 So.2d 563 (1961), the Court noted that there had been no change in the law, other than allowing for a writ of prohibition to be made to circuit court, since the decision rendered in Vinegar Bend. The only change made by Section 1510 was to allow a writ to be made to circuit court rather than asking for an injunction in chancery court. Nowhere has there been any statute giving the special court of eminent domain any power to hear or determine any question save that of compensation and that court is still enjoined by statute from dismissing the proceedings. Channell, 241 Miss. at 294, 130 So.2d at 564. The Legislature reenacted the chapter dealing with eminent domain in 1971. The reenactment took the jurisdiction of the eminent domain court from the justice of the peace and gave that jurisdiction to county courts in those counties having such and to circuit courts in those counties which do not have a county court. Another change in the chapter was a deletion of the section allowing for a writ of prohibition. Instead, a new section was added. That section, codified as § 11-27-15 in the Mississippi Code of 1972, allows the same court where the petition is pending ... to dismiss the petition on any of the following grounds: (1) that the petitioner seeking to exercise the right of eminent domain is not, in character, such a corporation, association, district or other legal entity as is entitled to the right; (2) that there is no public necessity for the taking of the particular property or a part thereof which it is proposed to condemn; or (3) that the contemplated use alleged to be a public use is not in law a public use for which private property may be taken or damaged. Any such motion, if filed, shall be heard and decided by the judge as a preference proceeding, without a jury, prior to the hearing on the petition. This Court has said that enactment of this section was obviously a response of the Legislature to carry out the mandate contained in Section 17 of the Mississippi Constitution. Mississippi Power & Light Co. v. Conerly, 460 So.2d 107, 111 (Miss. 1984). There have been two cases which have specifically addressed the question of whether an eminent domain court can try title. In Evans v. Mississippi Power Co., 206 So.2d 321 (Miss. 1968), this Court said that an eminent domain court can only determine the amount of compensation; it cannot try title. The basis of the Court's decision was twofold. First, the Court said that the statutes on eminent domain, §§ 2749-2782 of the Mississippi Code of 1942, clearly express the intention that the court of eminent domain only be allowed to determine the amount of compensation. Secondly, the Court said that previous case law also limited the jurisdiction of the eminent domain court. It was tersely and succinctly stated in Mississippi State Highway Commission v. West, 181 Miss. 206, 219, 179 So. 279, 282 (1938), in these words: There are numerous decisions holding that the sole object of a petition to condemn land for public use is to ascertain the compensation to be paid;   . (Emphasis added.) Evans, 206 So.2d at 323. The second case is Whitehead v. Mississippi State Highway Commission, 254 So.2d 357 (Miss. 1971). The Court again said that an eminent domain court cannot try title. However, the Court offered no support or explanation for that holding other than saying that [t]his is not a proper function for a special court of eminent domain. Whitehead, 254 So.2d at 359. Evans, supra, relied on the case of Mississippi State Highway Commission v. West, 181 Miss. 206, 179 So. 279 (1938). An examination of West reveals that reliance on West as support for holding that an eminent domain court cannot try title was misplaced. The question before the Court in West was whether a petitioner was precluded from questioning the title of purported lessees who were in possession of the land sought to be condemned. The Court did in fact cite cases which had held that the only object of a petition seeking to condemn land was to determine the amount of compensation and that the petitioner was bound by the statements in the petition and the defendants did not have to establish their title. However, the Court said that the public should not have to pay compensation to a person whose proof on the trial affirmatively discloses that he had no title or interest in the property sought to be condemned. While the jury in such a proceeding is never concerned with the question of title, this rule does not apply to the court in its application of the law. West, 181 Miss. at 222, 179 So. at 284. In Mississippi State Highway Commission v. Channell, 241 Miss. 290, 130 So.2d 563 (1961), the Court explained its holding in West. West was an appeal from the circuit court which in turn had heard an appeal from an eminent domain court. This Court said that the result of West was not to extend the jurisdiction of a circuit court but to provide the circuit court with additional authority beyond that of the eminent domain court for instructing the jury on matters such as who is entitled to the damages. But the scope of the inquiry does not extend beyond the amount of compensation and the parties entitled thereto. Channell, 241 Miss. at 295, 130 So.2d at 565 (emphasis added). Although the eminent domain court is `special' in that it utilizes some procedures peculiarly adapted to actions to determine just compensation for public taking of private property, see Mississippi State Highway Comm. v. First Methodist Church of Biloxi, 323 So.2d 92 (Miss. 1975), its powers clearly flow from a particularization of the jurisdiction conferred upon the county and circuit courts of this state. Barrett v. State Highway Commission, 385 So.2d 627, 628 (Miss. 1980). Because of that particularization of jurisdiction, we have held that the Mississippi Rules of Evidence apply to eminent domain proceedings. Hudspeth v. State Highway Commission of Mississippi, 534 So.2d 210, 212 (Miss. 1988). Likewise, the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure govern the procedural aspects of an eminent domain proceeding unless a statutory procedure is found to the contrary. See Rule 81(a)(7), Miss.R.Civ.P. and State Highway Commission of Mississippi v. Harvard, 508 So.2d 1099, 1103 (Miss. 1987). Certainly, the 1971 reenactment of the chapter dealing with eminent domain necessitates a change in the way we view the jurisdiction of an eminent domain court. The statutes, as reenacted, have expanded the role of the eminent domain court. That court is now allowed to determine questions which were previously considered within the province of the circuit court. The court's expanded role allows it to perform functions which are judicial rather than ministerial. That the jurisdiction of the eminent domain court is no longer exercised by a justice of the peace but is now exercised by the county and circuit courts of this State is an important factor in the expansion of jurisdiction. The jurisdictional powers of an eminent domain court are much broader today than they were even as recently as 1971 when the Court in Whitehead said that an eminent domain court could not try title. The changes in the statutes demonstrate that the Legislature no longer intends eminent domain courts to be limited to determining only the question of the amount of compensation.