Hardin v. South Carolina Dept. of Transp.

• Decision Date: 12 February 2007
• Docket Number: No. 26262.,26262.
• Citation: 641 S.E.2d 437
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: John A. HARDIN and Martha Hardin Curran, as Trustees of Marital Trust 2 under the will of Martha S. Hardin, Deceased, Respondents, v. The SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Petitioner. and Elisha B. Tallent, d/b/a Elisha's California Hair, Respondent v. The South Carolina Department of Transportation, Petitioner.

641 S.E.2d 437

John A. HARDIN and Martha Hardin Curran, as Trustees of Marital Trust 2 under the will of Martha S. Hardin, Deceased, Respondents, v. The SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Petitioner. and Elisha B. Tallent, d/b/a Elisha's California Hair, Respondent v. The South Carolina Department of Transportation, Petitioner.

No. 26262.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Hardin heard April 5, 2006.

Tallent heard May 2, 2004.

Decided February 12, 2007.

Rehearing Denied March 8, 2007.

Linda C. McDonald and Beacham O. Brooker, Jr., both of Columbia, and Robert L. Widener, of McNair Law Firm, of Columbia, for Petitioner.

David A. White, of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, of Rock Hill, for Respondents.

Andrew F. Lindemann, of Davidson Morrison & Lindemann, of Columbia, and Danny C. Crowe, of Turner Padget Graham & Laney, of Columbia, for Amicus Curiae Municipal Association of South Carolina.

Richard D. Bybee, of Smith Bundy Bybee & Barnett, of Mt. Pleasant, for Amicus Curiae South Carolina Landowners Association.

Robert E. Lyon, Jr., and M. Clifton Scott, both of the South Carolina Association of Counties, of Columbia, for Amicus Curiae South Carolina Association of Counties.

Robert Clyde Childs, III, of Greenville, for Respondent.

Chief Justice TOAL:

These cases deal with the issue of whether and to what degree realignments and closures of public roads constitute "takings" within the meaning of Article I, § 13 of the South Carolina Constitution and the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Lower courts separately determined that the property owners in both Hardin and Tallent suffered takings as a result of actions of the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT). We reverse.

FACTUAL/PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In light of our disposition of these two appeals, we engage in only a brief review of the facts.

A. Hardin

Dave Lyle Boulevard is a high-speed, divided, controlled-access highway connecting the City of Rock Hill to Interstate Highway 77. No private driveway has direct access to the highway. Instead, private driveways exit onto side roads which have intermittent access to the highway. The highway has a number of turn lanes in the median which allow traffic to cross the median and access the many intersecting surface streets.

The plaintiffs own two properties that are located on the north side of Dave Lyle Boulevard. The properties sit on either side of the highway's intersection with Garrison Road. For several years, this intersection contained a break in the median which runs down Dave Lyle Boulevard. This break allowed vehicles at the intersection to access both Garrison Road and the highway in either direction. In 1998, the City of Rock Hill requested that SCDOT construct a new intersection approximately 1,000 feet east of the existing intersection to accommodate an industrial park and a technical college. SCDOT advised that creating a new intersection would require that the Garrison/Dave Lyle intersection be closed due to the limitations of cross streets on the highway. After a public hearing, SCDOT consented to the construction of the new intersection. As a result, SCDOT closed the break in the median at the Garrison/Dave Lyle intersection. This prevented vehicle traffic from making any left turns at the Garrison/Dave Lyle intersection.

In 2001, the plaintiffs filed an inverse condemnation action against SCDOT alleging that depriving the traffic leaving their properties the ability to cross Dave Lyle Boulevard constituted a taking for which the plaintiffs were owed compensation. The trial court ruled that the plaintiffs suffered a compensable taking, and the court of appeals affirmed. See Hardin v. South Carolina Dep't of Transp., 359 S.C. 244, 597 S.E.2d 814 (Ct.App.2004).

B. Tallent

In this case, the plaintiff purchased a tract of property located on Old Easley Bridge Road near Greenville. The plaintiff opened and operated a hair salon and tanning studio on the property. At the time she purchased the property, the property had access to Highway 123 via Old Easley Bridge Road. As the roads were then aligned, Old Easley Bridge Road split off Highway 123 as a tangent and gradually curved to intersect White Horse Road, which runs perpendicular to Highway 123.

Sometime after the plaintiff purchased the property, SCDOT began construction of a controlled-access "diamond" interchange at the intersection of Highway 123 and White Horse Road. This re-configuration involved closing access points between Old Easley Bridge Road and White Horse Road. Specifically, SCDOT closed Old Easley Bridge Road to through traffic, removed a traffic light, and made several cosmetic changes along the road. These changes altered the character of Old Easley Bridge Road from a through-connecting surface street to a road ending in a cul-de-sac.

As in Hardin, the plaintiff brought an inverse condemnation action against SCDOT. Using the fact that the road re-configuration situated her property on a cul-de-sac and limited her access to Highway 123 by requiring her to navigate a series of secondary roads running through low income neighborhoods, the plaintiff alleged SCDOT had "taken" her property. The plaintiff alleged the road re-configuration decreased her property value and resulted in her business being less accessible to the public (and thus less valuable). The trial court ruled that the plaintiff suffered a compensable taking, and the court of appeals affirmed. See Tallent v. South Carolina Dep't of Transp., 363 S.C. 160, 609 S.E.2d 544 (Ct.App.2005).

LAW/ANALYSIS

As we have previously held, a plaintiff's right to recovery in an inverse condemnation case is premised upon the ability to show that he or she has suffered a taking. Byrd v. City of Hartsville, 365 S.C. 650, 657, 620 S.E.2d 76, 80 (2005). Although it has been recognized that the existence of property interests are often determined by reference to sources such as state law, see Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103, 126 S.Ct. 1515, 1540, 164 L.Ed.2d 208 (2006) (Scalia, J., dissenting), South Carolina courts have embraced federal takings jurisprudence as providing the rubric under which we analyze whether an interference with someone's property interests amounts to a constitutional taking. Byrd, 365 S.C. at 656 n. 6, 620 S.E.2d at 79 n. 6 (citing Westside Quik Shop, Inc. v. Stewart, 341 S.C. 297, 306, 534 S.E.2d 270, 275 (2000)).

Both Article I, § 13 of the South Carolina Constitution and the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provide that private property shall not be taken for public use without the payment of "just compensation."¹ Although the takings clause was once understood to apply only to a direct appropriation of property or the functional equivalent of an ouster of possession, it is now universally accepted that regulations which control or limit the use of property can "take" the property in the constitutional sense. See Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003, 1014, 112 S.Ct. 2886, 120 L.Ed.2d 798 (1992) (reviewing nineteenth century takings jurisprudence); see also Penn Central Transp. Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104, 122 n. 2, 98 S.Ct. 2646, 57 L.Ed.2d 631 (1978); and Byrd 365 S.C. at 656, 620 S.E.2d at 79.

Although no set formula exists for determining whether property has been "taken" by the government, the relevant jurisprudence does provide significant guideposts. Determining whether government action effects a taking requires a court to examine the character of the government's action and the extent to which this action interferes with the owner's rights in the property as a whole. Penn Central, 438 U.S at 130-31, 98 S.Ct. 2646. Stated more specifically, these "ad hoc, factual inquiries" involve examining the character of the government's action, the economic impact of the action, and the degree to which the action interferes with the owner's investment-backed expectations. Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U.S. 419, 426, 102 S.Ct. 3164, 73 L.Ed.2d 868 (1982) (quoting Penn Central, 438 U.S. at 124, 98 S.Ct. 2646); Byrd, 365 S.C. at 658-59, 620 S.E.2d at 80 (quoting the same). Generally, the physical occupation of private property by the government results in a taking regardless of the public interest the government's action serves. See Loretto, 458 U.S. at 426-28, 102 S.Ct. 3164; see also Lucas, 505 U.S. at 1015, 112 S.Ct. 2886. Additionally, the enforcement of a government regulation will usually effect a taking when the regulation denies all economically beneficial or productive use of land. Lucas, 505 U.S. at 1015, 112 S.Ct. 2886.

In the instant cases, it is instructive to begin by classifying the nature of the government's actions which the property owners allege give rise to takings. Neither Hardin nor Tallent involves the enactment of any regulation which directly regulates any use of the owners' properties. Thus, in order to have "taken" any part of these properties, SCDOT must have physically appropriated some aspect of them. Determining this question requires that we analyze what property interests exist with reference to the public road system and a property owner's access thereto.

In some jurisdictions, a property owner merely has an easement for the purpose of accessing the public road system. Therefore, as long as a property owner has access to the public road system, his easement is intact. For this reason, any road re-configuration that does not cut off an owner's access to the public road system effects no taking upon him.

In South Carolina, however, a property owner has more rights. As we have held, a property owner in South Carolina has an easement for access to and from any public road that abuts his property, regardless of whether he has access to and from an additional public road. South Carolina State Hwy. Dep't v. Allison, 246 S.C. 389, 393, 143 S.E.2d 800, 802 (1965). Thus, for example, in South Carolina, an owner of a corner lot...