Texas Supreme Court Report

SCOTX Clarifies Rules for Value and Common-Carrier Status of Pipeline EasementsIn a test of eminent-domain standards for pipelines, the Texas Supreme Court has held that a petroleum-products pipeline’s “public use” is a legal question for judges to decide, not juries. But the court also held the landowner may testify to negotiations for other pipeline easements crossing its property “as some evidence” of the current highest and best use of the property taken.That holding reversed the trial court’s limit on valuation testimony to the property’s agricultural use.Terrance Hlavinka, who runs the Brazoria County family business, testified that the family’s primary purpose when acquiring tracts interlaced with easements was to sell pipeline easements. Evidence offered by the Hlavinkas showed that they recently negotiated $3.45 million for one pipeline easement and $2 million for another from other pipeline companies in private sales.Based on this comparative evidence, the Hlavinkas calculated the property HSC Pipeline Partnership condemned had a $3.3 million fair-market value. But limited to the agriculture valuation, the trial court awarded the Hlavinkas $132,293 for the 6.4-acre easement – a strip of land 30 feet wide and nearly 1.8 miles long. That represented $108,967 for crop and surface damage and $23,326 for the…