Court Opinion

ID: 9774414
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:19:50.696563+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:08.234219
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge McCullough.
Because I believe that Terry L. Steen and Anita I. Steen (the Steens), as owners of an easement across property condemned by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Commission), are entitled to just compensation for the taking, I respectfully dissent.1
Article 1, Section 10 of the Pennsylvania Constitution provides that private property shall not “be taken or applied to public use, without authority of law and without just compensation being first made or secured.” Both our Pennsylvania Supreme Court and this Court have held that an easement is extinguished by a taking under eminent domain, thereby entitling the easement holder to damages. Curtis v. Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia, 482 Pa. 58, 393 A.2d 377 (1978); Captline v. County of Allegheny, 662 A.2d 691 (Pa.Cmwlth.1995).
Indeed, section 507(a) of the Eminent Domain Code specifically recognizes the “owners of easements” as persons having an interest in a condemned property such that their claim for damages “shall be *753heard or tried together” with the claims of the owner of the property itself. 26 Pa. C.S. § 507(a). Moreover, the purpose of Eminent Domain is to ensure just compensation to those persons whose land is condemned by Eminent Domain, which may require certain provisions of the Code to be liberally construed so as to achieve this purpose. Department of Transportation v. Beamer, 89 Pa.Cmwlth. 490, 493 A.2d 130 (1985).
Contrary to the Majority, I do not believe that the language of paragraph 13 of the Easement Agreement, which automatically terminates the easement in event of condemnation, is intended to strip the property owners of their constitutionally recognized property rights. Such an interpretation negates the legal effect of condemnation and Eminent Domain, is contrary to the parties’ expressed intent, and renders the Steens’ easement without value and the other pertinent contractual language meaningless. Paragraph 13 provides as follows:
If all of the property or material portion thereof is taken or condemned for a public or quasi-public use, to the extent that the Grantee may no longer maintain, use, or relocate the Signs within the Property, the easement granted and created hereby shall automatically terminate as of the date title to the condemned real estate vests in the condemnor, with the qualification that the foregoing shall apply only if Grantee is unable to relocate Grantee’s Signs on the property. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Grantor’s right to erect improvements shall not be limited by the foregoing and, in the event of relocation of the Signs near such improvements, the Grantor and Grantee exercising reasonable judgment, shall decide upon a mutually convenient location for relocating the Signs.
All proceeds and awards which may be payable as a result of the taking or condemnation of all or part of the Property shall belong to and be paid to the Grantor. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Grantee shall have the right to assert a separate claim for loss of the Signs if said condemnation results in the taking of the Signs or in the elimination of Grantee’s access to the Signs. Pursuant thereto, Grantor and Grantee shall each file separate claims for condemnation damages.
(R.R. at 37a-38a.) (Emphasis added.) Clearly, this language does nothing more than restate the law, which is to say that an easement is perpetual unless it is “taken” by condemnation. While the Steens sold the signs to Steen Advertising, Inc., they never relinquished or assigned ownership of the easement itself. Rather, the evidence of record reveals that, since 1987, the Steens have continuously leased the easement to Steen Advertising, Inc., in exchange for an annual fee.
Furthermore, while the trial court correctly noted that paragraph 13 recognized two parties with viable claims, the property owner and the sign owner, nothing in this paragraph reflects an intent to limit an award resulting from condemnation solely to these two parties. Significantly, at the time of execution of the Easement Agreement, the Steens owned the signs, and the Easement Agreement recognized two distinct situations under which the Steens could assert a separate claim, either by a taking of the signs themselves or by elimination of access to the signs.
Paragraph 5 of the Easement Agreement specifically allowed the Steens to “sell, transfer, convey, and assign all of [their] right, title and interest in the Signs and in the rights created pursuant to this easement agreement.” (R.R. at 34a.) Although the Steens subsequently sold the *754signs to Steen Advertising, Inc., they maintained ownership of the easement, thereby retaining the access rights. Paragraph 13 of the Easement Agreement simply did not contemplate the current situation, i.e., a third party with an ownership interest in the easement, but paragraph 5 clearly allowed for such. For that reason, I do not believe that paragraph 13 can be construed so as to exclude this third party, the Steens, the owners of the access rights, from an award of condemnation damages. In exercising their contractual rights, the Steens conveyed their ownership interest in the signs, but retained ownership of the easement. Therefore, unlike the Majority, I would conclude that the Steens also sustained a compensable loss pursuant to section 507(a) of the Eminent Domain Code.
Accordingly, I would hold that the Commission’s declaration of taking deprived the Steens of the beneficial use of their easement, for which they are entitled to just compensation, and I would reverse the order of the trial court and remand for the appointment of viewers.
Judge BUTLER joins in this dissent.

. I do not disagree with the Majority's denial of the motion to quash filed on behalf of the Commission.