Hydro Electric Corporation v. Shanks

• Decision Date: 21 November 1927
• Citation: 299 S.W. 809
• Parties: HYDRO ELECTRIC CORPORATION v. SHANKS (two cases).
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

299 S.W. 809

HYDRO ELECTRIC CORPORATION v. SHANKS (two cases).

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

November 21, 1927.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Hawkins County; H. T. Campbell, Judge.

Actions by the Hydro Electric Corporation against W. H. Shanks. Judgment dismissing plaintiff's petitions, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Phillips & Hale, of Rogersville, for plaintiff in error.

C. W. Margraves, of Rogersville, for defendant in error.

CHAMBLISS, J.

The power company, in these two causes consolidated by consent, sought by petition to condemn rights of way over the lands of the defendant for its poles and wires. Demurrers challenged the sufficiency of the petitions on the ground that neither the width, length, nor dimensions of the land sought to be taken for the use of petitioner were stated therein, and that the petitions were in all respects too vague in description. The demurrers were sustained, and the company has appealed.

The insistence is, in substance, that the form of petition adopted is consistent with the charter of the company, as found in section 2488 of Shannon's Code, and also with chapter 56 of the Acts of 1925, both of which statutes authorize the taking by electric corporations of such lands and interests therein as may be necessary only for the uses contemplated — in this case the placing and maintenance of its poles and transmission wires — and that no specific land need be taken beyond that required for its poles, and that therefore none need be described in the petition for condemnation. It is insisted that it was the intention of the Legislature, and is the effect of these statutes, to create an exception, applicable in such cases, under which an easement only may be condemned for the restricted or limited purposes alleged to be required, being the right to occupy the land with poles and fixtures for guy wires, and the right to enter for the purpose of erecting and maintaining the line of wires.

However, both the charter section and the act of 1925 relied on conclude with the provision that, unless the company condemning and the owner agree, the taking shall proceed under the general condemnation statutes. Shannon's Code, §§ 1844-1867. These sections plainly contemplate and make provision only for the taking of definite areas of land, and expressly provide that the petition for condemnation shall set forth the parcel of land and the extent thereof wanted, with a prayer that a suitable portion shall be set apart by metes and bounds. No provision is made for the...