Court Opinion

ID: 9670509
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:21:46.123294+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:51:16.959401
License: Public Domain

On Second Rehearing.
HAWTHORNE, Justice.
We granted another rehearing in this case so that we could give further consideration to the judgment of the lower court awarding these landowners severance damages. Moss and Barbe were allowed $11,-250 as severance or consequential damages resulting from the expropriation of a 30-foot' right of way across 80 acres of land owned by them (Tract No. 1), and Barbe was given $22,500 as damages resulting from the expropriation of the right of way diagonally across a tract of 200 acres owned by him (Tract No. 2). The right of way is-to be used by the Texas Pipe Line Company in the construction of a 16-inch pipeline for the transportation of high octane gasoline.
The property crossed by the right of way is near large industrial plants, two ship canals, a railroad, and a public highway. Due to the location of these two tracts it is conceded by all parties that they are suitable as industrial sites and have a high market value. Plaintiff’s experts fixed the value of the land at from $550 to $725 an acre, and testified that the construction of the pipeline would not cause any damages whatever to the land adjoining the right of way. In contrast, defendants’ experts placed a value on the property of from $1,250 to $1,500 per acre immediately prior to the expropriation, but testified that the construction of the pipeline across these two tracts would spoil them for any industrial use whatever and leave them suitable only as agricultural or grazing lands. For this reason defendants contended in the lower court that they were entitled to recover as severance damages the difference between the value of the property for industrial uses ($1,250 to $1,500 per acre) and its value for agricultural or grazing purposes ($250 per acre).
The trial judge found that the land in both tracts had a value of $1000 per acre, and in our original opinion in this case we upheld this finding. Tract No. 1, owned by Moss and Barbe, contains 80 acres, and the right of way cuts across the south *217portion of this tract, leaving 15 acres in a triangle on the south side of the right of way and 65 acres on the north side. As severance damages the trial judge awarded $11,250 to the owners of this tract because he was of the opinion that the 15-acre triangular piece had been ruined for industrial purposes, and that defendants were entitled to receive the difference between its value prior to the expropriation of $1,000 per acre and the value of $250 per acre it would have for agricultural or pasturage purposes after the pipeline was laid. Tract No. 2 comprises approximately 200 acres, and the right of way crossing this tract cuts it into two somewhat irregularly shaped parcels of approximately equal size. The trial judge reasoned that the owner Barbe had. suffered consequential damages to this 200-acre tract of 15 per cent of the difference between its value for industrial purposes and its value for agricultural purposes, and since 200 acres were involved he awarded Barbe $22,500, or 200 x 15% of $1,000— $250.
It must be borne in mind that we are not here dealing with a right of way for a road or highway or a cable buried below plow depth, but are dealing with a right of way for a 16-inch high pressure pipeline transporting high octane gasoline. This pipeline is potentially dangerous. Leaks are expected to occur in the line from time to time, and when leaks do occur explosions may result. The record shows that the pipe extending across these two tracts, for instance, will hold approximately 48,000 gallons of high octane gasoline, and that it would be dangerous to locate any structure or industry over the line or in its immediate vicinity. For these reasons we are convinced that defendants have suffered damages to their remaining property because of the expropriation.
In Texas Pipe Line Co. v. National Gasoline Co. of Louisiana, Inc., 203 La. 787, 14 So.2d 636, 638, plaintiff (apparently the same company as the plaintiff in the instant case) expropriated a right of way for the construction of a high pressure eight-inch gasoline pipeline buried 18 inches below the surface. In that case the court found that, although there was not much actual danger that a leak would occur in the pipeline, the mere fact that the high pressure pipeline was there had the psychological effect of deterring prospective purchasers of the adjacent land and of impairing the commercial value of the property adjoining, the right of way. In affirming a judgment of the lower court awarding severance damages to defendant in that suit this court said:
“The argument for the plaintiff that there is no real danger or reason for such fear has no force against the fact that the fear exists and is unavoidable. The fear of danger in some cases is as bad as the danger itself — it is a condition — not a theory.”
In the instant case we think the evidence shows that a real danger exists, and for this reason if for no other it is *219clear to us that the Value of the adjacent land has depreciated and that defendants here have suffered severance damages. Although plaintiff’s experts testified at the trial that defendants’ remaining property was not injured by the pipeline, they offered no reasons for this opinion, and therefore it remains only a conclusion on their part and is not impressive.
Although we do not agree with the landowners’ contention in the lower court that the property in question has been ruined for all industrial purposes, we think that the percentage method used by the trial judge in computing the severance damages is legally incorrect, and the award appears to us to be excessive.
“It is the well-settled jurisprudence that the damages allowable under Section 2 of Article 1 of the Constitution of 1921, resulting from expropriation of property rights are the difference between the market value of the property for sale or rental purposes, immediately before and immediately after the expropriation. Mere consequential injuries to the owners arising from discomfort, disturbance, injury to business and the like are damnum absque injuria. See Harrison v. Louisiana Highway Commission, 191 La. 839, 186 So. 354 and cases there cited.” American Tel. & Tel. Co. of Louisiana v. Maguire, 219 La. 740, 743, 54 So.2d 4, 5, Note 2.
Since we have concluded that defendants in the present case have suffered some severance damages, we have decided, in the interests of justice and under the authority of Article 906 of the Code of Prac-. tice, to remand this case to the lower court to permit the defendants to establish by competent evidence the difference between the market value of each tract for sale or. rental immediately before and immediately after the expropriation, and in determining this market value the use to which the right of way is being put and the size and irregular shape of the lands on each side of the pipeline must be considered. To make ourselves perfectly clear, defendants must effectively show the market value of each tract immediately before and immediately after the expropriation in order to establish the quantum of their severance damages.
The case is remanded to the lower court for further proceedings consistent with the views herein expressed; all costs are to> be paid by Texas Pipe Line Company.