Court Opinion

ID: 9689765
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:46:10.912239+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:52.051407
License: Public Domain

SANDERS, Justice
(dissenting).
The sole question presented in this case is whether the Louisiana Department of Highways can employ Act No. 107 of 1954 (LSA-R.S. 48:441-460) to expropriate a servitude on land to obtain soil for use in the construction of a nearby highway.
The power of expropriation of the Department of Highways is defined by LSA-R.S. 48 :2171 and LSA-R.S. 48:222.2 These sections are substantive and basic. They specify the property which may be expropriated for highway purposes. The property includes servitudes on land from which earth can be obtained. These sections are not abrogated or modified by Act No. 107 of 1954.
Louisiana Act No. 107 of 1954 is procedural only. Under the authority-of Article VI, Section 19.1 of the Constitution, it provides an additional and more expeditious method of expropriation. Title is vested in the Department during the initial stage of the proceeding. The right to a hearing both as to the compensation and the public purpose of the taking is preserved.3 Being procedural, the statute does not purport to define the power of expropriation or to make a specific reiteration of the property subject to it. The words, “property”, in the constitutional provision, and “property, including both corporeal property and servitudes”, in the statute, are generic and non-definitive. These refer*1117enees serve only as a peg on which to hang the procedural language. For the ascertainment of the property subject to expropriation, the statute must be construed with the substantive law, of which it is an appendage. Its procedures apply to the property already described in this basic law. It thus applies to land from which earth can be obtained. Such land, because of the very nature of its use, is not located in the right-of-way.
While use for right-of-way is one of the highway purposes for which land can be expropriated, it is not the only one. Its use for obtaining soil employed in construction is likewise an important highway purpose.
It is not within the province of the Court to inquire into the wisdom of the procedural statute. That is a matter for legislative determination.
In my opinion, Act No. 107 of 1954 is available for the expropriation of the servitude in the instant case.
I respectfully dissent.

. LSA-R.S. 48:217: “The department may, without any competitive bidding, acquire any immovable property, or the use thereof, including servitudes, lands, and improvements on lands, necessary for the right of way of any highway included in the state highway system or any appurtenance thereto or for any of the purposes of this Chapter by expropriation, by donation, by purchase, by exchange, or by lease.”

. LSA-R.S. 48 :222: “The department may acquire by purchase, lease, donation, or expropriation and may operate any gravel bed, fill or rock deposit, marble or granite quarry, or land from which earth can be obtained, or other natural resources or deposits susceptible of being used for the construction or maintenance of state highways or bridges, if the needs of the state in the construction and maintenance of highways will be best served by the acquisition.”

.LSA-R.S. 48:445, 447, 451; State, Through Department of Highways v. Macaluso, 235 La. 1019, 106 So.2d 455: State, Through Department of Highways v. Guidry, 240 La. 516, 124 So.2d 531.