Court Opinion

ID: 9686129
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:30:46.70483+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:15.312761
License: Public Domain

SABERS, Justice
(concurring).
I have no quarrel with the decision of the trial court or the Supreme Court, but it is necessary to review the facts which illuminate the various events of this transaction. At the turn of the century, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company (railroad), acquired right-of-way deeds over a strip of land 200' wide in Charles Mix County between the towns of Geddes and Platte. The railroad right-of-way covers about IIV2 miles in length and cuts diagonally through more than 30 quarters of farmland.
In about 1936, Northwestern Public Service Company (NWPS), constructed an electric transmission line from Geddes to Platte over a different route along the section lines. In the late 1970’s, NWPS began considering updating that line and they *185concluded that they could save about $250,-000 in costs if they could build along the diagonal railroad right-of-way as opposed to following their existing route.
Trains ceased to run on this line about ten years ago. In 1980, the railroad company went into bankruptcy and on June 9, 1982, the South Dakota Railroad Authority (authority), acquired the right-of-way and conveyed its interest therein to the Division of Railroads for the State of South Dakota (Division of Railroads).
On May 25, 198'4, NWPS applied to the Division of Railroads for pole and wire occupancy on the ll1^ miles of this right-of-way. Based on this application, the Division of Railroads and NWPS entered into a “utility crossings agreement” on June 24, 1984.
This crossings agreement, in substance, gave NWPS a perpetual easement to use this property for the one-time price of $75, (stated to be for expenses in connection with the preparation and execution of the agreement), and $106 for each year of the lease. This lease agreement could be can-celled by NWPS upon sixty days notice without cause but the Division of Railroads could cancel only if NWPS violated the terms of the agreement.
The adjoining or abutting landowners learned of this agreement for the first time in April of 1985, when NWPS representatives began approaching them about using part of their land to build the line. When the landowners expressed discontent with the construction of the line through their property, they were told by NWPS representatives that the line could be rerouted around their respective lands if the landowners would pay NWPS’ “actual costs” of rerouting the line. One landowner was quoted an expense of approximately $80,-000 to $35,000 per section, (this would amount to $225,000 to $262,000 for the entire line). In other words, this public service company was willing to sell to the landowners their right to use the line for a quarter of a million dollars even though they only paid $75 for same.
In order to soften the sting of the above argument, NWPS argued below that this project will save the company $250,000, which savings will be passed on to its customers. Even assuming this is so, it is still not right to do this at the expense of all of the taxpayers of the State of South Dakota.
All of the events referred to above between the railroad, the Railroad Authority, the Division of Railroads, and NWPS took place without any notice of any kind to adjoining or abutting landowners; no notice was given to the taxpayers in general; no environmental impact statement was filed; no approval by the Governor or the Public Utilities Commission of the State of South Dakota was obtained, and there was no consultation with the local county commission.
Although it is hard to decide whether this governmental agency and this public service company have “hand in hand, tiptoed or bulldozed their way through the legal tulips” with this “sweetheart deal”, it does appear that it was done without any real regard for the rights of the landowners in question and at the expense of the taxpayers in general.