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728 S.W.2d 812

State v. Enterprise Co.

Court of Appeals of Texas

Decided November 6, 1986

Court of Appeals of Texas · decided 1986-11-06

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“(e) If a portion of a tract or parcel of real property is condemned for the use, construction, operation, or maintenance of the state highway system or of a county toll project described by Chapter 304, Acts of the 50th Legislature, Regular Session, 1947 (Article 6795b-l, Vernon’s Texas Civil Statutes), that is eligible for designation as part of the state highway system, the special commissioners shall determine the damage to the property owner regardless of whether the property owner makes a claim for damages to the remaining property. In awarding compensation or assessing the damages, the special commissioners shall consider any special and direct benefits that arise from the highway improvement that are peculiar to the property owner and that relate to the property owner’s ownership, use, or enjoyment of the particular parcel of remaining real property.”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including State v. Windham, Roberts v. State

Applies TX PR § 21.042

Relies on State v. Carpenter · State v. Meyer · Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad v. Ferris

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1986-11-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently June 2004

6 state decisions

40198619902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

PAUL PRESSLER, Justice.

¶1 The State condemned a portion of appel-lee’s land for highway purposes. The market value of the part taken was determined to be $127,302. The State estimated the enhancement to the value of the remainder to be $35,357 arguing that Texas Property Code § 21.042(e) allows the benefit to the remainder to be subtracted from the compensation paid for the part taken. The trial court entered judgment for $127,302, the full market value of the land taken. We affirm.

¶2 The appellant, in two related points of error, complains that the trial court erred when it held that Texas Property Code did not require that the benefit to the remainder be offset against the compensation paid for the part taken, and if it did so require, it was unconstitutional.

¶3 Article I § 17 of the Texas Constitution provides that no person’s property may be taken for public use unless adequate compensation has been made. The first case interpreting “adequate compensation” was Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad Company v. Ferris, 26 Tex. 588 (Tex.Sup.Ct.1863). That case held that the Texas Constitution requires compensation for the full market value of the land taken. The value of any benefits to the con-demnee’s remaining land may not offset the amount paid for the part taken. The Texas Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed this interpretation of the Texas Constitution. Dulaney v. Nolan County, 85 Tex. 225, 20 S.W. 70 (1892); State v. Carpenter, 126 Tex. 604, 89 S.W.2d 194 (1936); State v. Meyer, 403 S.W.2d 366 (Tex.1966).

¶4 In 1984 the Legislature added subsection (e) to Tex.Prop.Code § 21.042. The new subsection states:

In awarding compensation or assessing the damages, the special commissioners shall consider any special and direct benefits that arise from the highway improvement that are peculiar to the property owner and that relate to the property owner’s ownership, use, or enjoyment of the particular parcel of remaining real property.

¶5 The language and the legislative history of this new subsection suggests that the Legislature might have intended to change the method for determining adequate compensation for land condemned for highway purposes. However, the Texas Supreme Court has held that “adequate compensation” means the market price of the land actually taken without any reduction for estimated benefits to the condemnee’s remaining land. If this principle is to be *813 changed, it must be done directly and not merely by suggestive language. The Texas Constitution has been clearly interpreted as disallowing such a deduction. If a statute changing this principle is to be constitutional, the Supreme Court of Texas must say that it is or the Texas Constitution must be amended.

¶6 The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

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