Court Opinion

ID: 9810509
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:52:10.930187+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:39:58.904059
License: Public Domain

Devin, J.
The former appeal in this case by the plaintiff was from a judgment of nonsuit. Light Co. v. Bowman, 228 N. C. 319, 45 S. E. (2) 531. The question then debated was whether plaintiff’s easement acquired by judgment in condemnation proceeding was valid and subsisting as against subsequent purchasers from the original owners of the land. Consideration of pertinent recording statutes was involved. Plaintiff’s rights under the condemnation decree were upheld, and the cause was remanded for determination of the issue raised by the defendants’ general denial of plaintiff’s action for mandatory injunction to remove obstructions on its right of way.
The burden was on the plaintiff to show that the building erected and maintained by defendants on the strip of land condemned for use by the plaintiff in the construction and continued operation of its electric power transmission lines constituted an interference inconsistent with plaintiff’s easement.
The uncontroverted evidence disclosed that the defendants erected shortly before this suit was begun and now maintain on plaintiff’s 50-foot right of way a substantial and permanent brick theater building 35 feet wide, 94 feet long, and 20 or 25 feet high, underneath plaintiff’s electric power transmission lines carrying 110,000 volts, the top of the building coming within 10 feet of the wires thus charged. The wires supported by steel towers 350 feet apart are suspended over the building which covers almost the entire width of the right of way. Metal vents on the roof of this building reach within 8 feet, 4 inches of the wires. It was testified that due to its height, size, construction and location this building interfered with inspection, repair and maintenance of plaintiff’s power lines. *687It was also testified that plaintiff is building a major steam electric plant near Lumberton, and in connection with it expects to make changes in its power lines including that portion over defendants’ building, and to install larger conductors and heavier wires, with which operations the building would interfere. Defendants’ evidence tended to show methods by which ordinary repairs could be made and operations maintained on plaintiff’s power lines without serious difficulty with the building as now located, though this might entail some additional equipment and labor, but it also appeared that for the purpose of and in making changes in its wires, conductors and installations the presence of defendants’ building would necessitate additional construction, labor and equipment.
After careful consideration of the evidence adduced at the trial as it appears of record, we reach the conclusion that plaintiff was entitled to have the court charge the jury, as prayed, that upon all the evidence if found to be true as testified, they should answer the issue submitted in favor of the plaintiff. Plaintiff’s prayer for instruction should have been given substantially as prayed. There was error in refusing plaintiff’s prayer for which a new trial must be awarded.
The easement acquired by plaintiff is described and defined in the final judgment in the condemnation proceeding, and this was offered in evidence as the basis of plaintiff’s action. By this decree plaintiff acquired the right of access along and upon a 50-foot strip of land described for the purpose of constructing, inspecting, repairing and maintaining its electric transmission lines, while the landowner retained the right to use the land so condemned for all purposes not inconsistent with the plaintiff’s easement.
To draw a definite line between the reciprocal and oftentimes overlapping rights and obligations of the owners of the dominant and servient tenements in an easement is not always simple. But the general rule in regard to land condemned for use for electric power transmission lines seems to be that the landowner has the right to make use of the strip of land condemned in any manner which does not conflict with the rights of the Power Company, and which is not inconsistent with the use of the land for the purposes for which condemnation was allowed, and which does not interfere with the free exercise of the easement acquired. Kesterson v. California-Oregon Power Co., 114 Oregon 22; Alabama Power Co. v. Berry, 222 Alabama 20; Cantrell v. Appalachian Power Co., 148 Va. 431; Aycock v. Houston Lighting & Power Co., 175 S. E. (2) 710; Hastings v. Sou. Natural Gas Corp., 45 Ga. App. 774; Patterson Orchard Co. v. Southwest Arkansas Utilities Corp., 179 Ark. 1029, 65 A. L. R. 1446; 30 C. J. S. 207, 209; 46 A. L. R, 1463; R. R. v. McLean, 158 N. C. 498, 74 S. E. 461; Power Co. v. Wissler, 160 N. C. 269, 76 S. E. 267; Collins v. Alabama Power Co., 214 Ala. 643. Ordinarily the owner of *688the dominant tenement has a right to the unobstructed use at all times of the servient land for the exercise of such rights as are necessary or incident to the enjoyment of the easement. 17 A. J. 1007. The principle is well stated in the recent case of Alabama Power Co. v. Berry, 222 Ala. 20: “The easement and servitude extend to all uses directly or incidentally conducive to the advancement of the purpose for which the right of way was acquired, and the owner retains merely the title in fee, carrying the right to make such use as in no way interferes with the full and free exercise of the easement.”
The right of the landowner to erect and maintain a building on the right of "way of an electric power company was decided adversely to the landowner in Collins v. Power Co., 214 Ala. 643. There the landowner erected a 5-room house extending 15 feet over and upon the land covered by the Power Company’s easement. The transmission line was suspended 25 feet above the building, capacity 44,000 volts. The Court said, “We think there can be no doubt that the dwelling house, resting in part upon complainant’s right of way, is an obstruction such as complainant sought to guard against when it took a grant of its right of way from Evans.” It was held the Power Company had right to have the building removed. And in Kesterson v. California-Oregon Power Co., 114 Oregon 22, it was held that the piling of lumber 15 feet high on the Power Company’s right of way was a wrongful invasion of the Power Company’s easement; that while the owner of the land reserved the right to cultivate the right of way and otherwise use and enjoy it, the evident design of the instrument was to give the Power Company exclusive possession of the land except for cultivation, raising livestock, or possibly mining.
In Patterson Orchard Co. v. Southwest Arkansas Utilities Corp., 179 Ark. 1029, it was held that by virtue of the decree of condemnation of a strip of plaintiff’s land for erection and operation of electric power transmission lines, the Power Company was granted exclusive possession of the property to the extent such possession wras necessary for this purpose, but the owner of the land also had right to possession subordinate to the paramount possession of the condemnor, and could lawfully exercise any and all rights except such as were inconsistent with and in interference with the easement granted.
In Cantrell v. Appalachian Power Co., 148 Va. 431, 139 S. E. 247, the Court quoted with approval from 9 R. C. L. 784: “It is an established principle that the conveyance of an easement gives the grantee all such rights as are incident or necessary to the reasonable and proper enjoyment of the easement.” And the Court also quoted from Curtis on the Law of Electricity that the Power Company “may make such use of the easement acquired as is necessary or convenient for the purpose for which it was acquired.” In Aycock v. Houston Lighting & Power Co., 175 *689S. W. 710, it was held the condemnor acquired such dominion over the land as is “proper and needful to carry out the purpose for which the land is taken,” with right in the owner of the fee to use the property in a manner not inconsistent with the uses for which it was condemned.
It was suggested by the defendants in the case at bar that the language in which the easement is set out in the judgment here is sufficiently comprehensive to leave open as a question of fact whether any particular obstruction maintained on plaintiff’s right of way by the defendants is inconsistent with the Power Company’s easement. But we think the recital of the respective rights of the condemnor and the landowners stated in the judgment here are substantially similar to those considered by the Courts in the decisions examined, whether contained in decrees of condemnation or contracts and conveyances, and that the general principles herein stated are applicable to the language of the plaintiff’s easement and the facts of this case.
Applying these principles of law with respect to the conflicting claims of the owners of the dominant and servient tenements in the use of a strip of land appropriated for the building and operation of an electric power transmission line, we think where pursuant to decree of condemnation the electric power company has erected steel towers and strung therefrom its wires carrying powerful electric current over and upon such strip of land for the purposes and public uses declared, the servient owner may not be permitted, against its protest and over its objection, to erect and maintain a large permanent building, covering almost the entire width of the right of way and extending upward within a few feet of the power charged wires, and that if these facts are properly made to appear from the evidence, this would constitute a use by the landowner inconsistent with the easement and an encroachment on the rights acquired. Such a building, so located, would seem, necessarily to interfere with the exercise of the plaintiff’s “right of access upon and along said easement,” for purposes incident to the maintenance of its electric power transmission lines. 28 C. J. S. 771.
Furthermore, considering the purpose for which the easement was acquired and the use of the land for stringing its overhead wires as contemplated by the Power Company, it is significant that in the final decree of condemnation in the Superior Court the original owners of the land, under whom the present defendants claim, consented to the incorporation in the judgment of the express declaration that the defendants should have the “right and privilege” to use the land condemned “for agricultural purposes,” thus apparently indicating agreement that the effect of the decree was to divest them of all rights to use the 50-foot strip save in the cultivation of the surface, under the maxim expressio unius est ex-clusw alterius. Evidently the judgment did not contemplate the use by *690tbe landowner of the airways in the zone occupied and to be occupied by the plaintiff’s elevated power lines. Again, should the Power Company make any change in the location or structure of its towers, or raise or lower its wires, the presence of the brick building described would necessarily interfere with the plaintiff’s use of the right of way it has acquired for that purpose.
Defendants call attention to the evidence that sometimes electric companies string their wires over buildings in the first instance, but in such case the distributor of electric current assumes the risk and undertakes the burden and increased difficulty of construction, inspection and maintenance, and usually such wires carry low voltage. But that is not our case. Here, the plaintiff acquired for its purposes the use of a strip of land unhampered by obstructions and has continued to enjoy that right until the erection of defendants’ building.
When the servient owner of land subject to an easement for the construction over and upon it of electric power lines undertakes to erect, and does erect and maintain, a permanent building of the size, height, and dimensions shown by the uncontradicted evidence in this case, to hold the Power Company, the dominant owner, without adequate remedy to prevent this encroachment upon an easement lawfully acquired would seem to us create an unwise precedent. A high degree of care is required of those who handle and distribute electric current, the degree of care being that commensurate with the dangers reasonably to be apprehended from contact with so powerful and subtle an agency, and when a right has been conferred therefor its exercise in the interest of public safety and public service should not be hampered by permitting unreasonable encroachments upon or interference with the means and facilities it may lawfully use. Calhoun v. Light Co., 216 N. C. 256, 4 S. E. (2) 858; Arrington v. Pinetops. 197 N. C. 433, 149 S. E. 549; Helms v. Power Co., 192 N. C. 784, 136 S. E. 9; Lawrence v. Power Co., 190 N. C. 664, 130 S. E. 735. Upon land now owned by the defendants the right to use a strip 50 feet wide in the erection, operation and maintenance of plaintiff’s electric power transmission lines had been lawfully appropriated for a service to the public. G.S. 56-5; G.S. 40-1; Wissler v. Power Co., 158 N. C. 465, 74 S. E. 460. Just compensation for the easement taken according to law was paid. This effected a withdrawal of the private use of this strip by the owner to the extent that such use by him would interfere with the public use. Hastings v. Sou. Natural Gas Corp., 45 Ga. App. 774. And where a right of way or easement which has been acquired by a public service corporation for the purpose of enabling it to perform its duty to the public is invaded or its enjoyment interfered with a remedy by injunction mandatory or prohibitory is available. R. R. v. Olive, 142 N. C. 257 (264), 55 S. E. 263.
*691We conclude that the plaintiff was entitled to have the instructions substantially as prayed for given to the jury, and that there must be another trial for the proper determination of the facts from the evidence in accordance with the principles of law herein stated.
New trial.