Midwestern Gas Transmission Co. v. Mason
| Decision Date | 29 September 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 38519,38519 |
| Citation | 201 N.E.2d 379,31 Ill.2d 340 |
| Parties | , 55 P.U.R.3d 502 MIDWESTERN GAS TRANSMISSION COMPANY, Appellee, v. James H. MASON et al., Appellants. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Massey, Anderson & Gibson, Paris, and Webber, Balbach & Thies, Urbana, for appellants.
James C. Stanfield, Paris, and Charles R. Young, Wise, Meyer, Young & Welsch, Danville, for appellee.
This is an action to condemn the right by easement to store natural gas in a strata underlying the 107-acre tract of the defendants James H. and Alta Mason, together with easements for a temporary well drill site, permanent well drill site and permanent access road. Defendants filed a traverse raising certain constitutional questions, and a cross petition seeking damage to property not taken. The jury returned verdicts for damages by virtue of the surface and drill site easements totalling $131.60, and $5,741.14 for damage to the remaining land of the defendants exclusive of the easements taken. The only verdict questioned on this appeal reads: 'We, the jury, find that the just compensation to which the defendants are entitled for the depreciation in value of the strata composed of the New Albany shale, the Devonian and Silurian systems of rock for the permanent easement for the underground storage of gas is no dollars.' Judgment was entered on the verdicts and this appeal followed.
A house and outbuilding are located on the defendants' tract, the house being rented on a month-to-month basis. Sixteen acres are either in or susceptible to cultivation and the remainder is devoted mostly to grass. Wells are producing oil from a shallower horizon than the strata here in question. Underlying the surface of this and contiguous land, comprising approximately 3600 acres, is a dome known as the Elbridge gas storage area which plaintiff proposes to develop as a natural gas storage reservoir in the Devonian and Silurian limestone formations. These porous formations are approximately 1000 feet thick and are overlayed by the New Albany shale, the top of which is in excess of 1800 feet below the surface.
The Illinois Commerce Commission entered an order prior to this proceeding approving the development, operation and maintenance of a gas storage reservoir by plaintiff pursuant to the provisions of the Illinois Gas Storage Act. Ill.Rev.Stat.1963, chap. 104, pars. 104-112.
Defendants complain that the commission's order granted a monopoly to plaintiff and thereby destroyed a potential market for the underground storage. They say this, coupled with the holding of Peoples Gas Light and Coke Co. v. Buckles, 24 Ill.2d 520, 182 N.E.2d 169, holding that unique value and adaptability of the strata for gas storage cannot be considered, invalidates the Gas Storage Act as a violation of due process and the taking of property without compensation under section 13 of article II of our constitution S.H.A. We understand their theory to be that failure of the gas storage act to provide for just compensation and its failure to provide a jury trial in connection with the Commission's proceedings renders the act unconstitutional.
While the charge of unconstitutionality was on different grounds in the Buckles case, it is inherent in that opinion that an exclusive right of eminent domain may, in some cases, be granted without violation of due process. It was pointed out that it would be futile to grant a certificate to more than one public utility since the usability as a storage reservoir rests upon a combination of a number of parcels.
...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Transok Pipeline Co. v. Darks
...states are to the same effect. Home Gas Co. v. Miles, 79 Misc.2d 26, 358 N.Y.S.2d 846 (Sup.Ct.1974); Midwestern Gas Transmission Co. v. Mason, 31 Ill.2d 340, 201 N.E.2d 379 (1964). Olson v. United States, 292 U.S. 246, 54 S.Ct. 704, 78 L.Ed. 1236 (1934), is not relevant because here in cont......
-
Consumers Power Co. v. Allegan State Bank, Docket No. 3311
...319 U.S. 266, 63 S.Ct. 1047, 87 L.Ed. 1390; Medina Valley Irr. Co. v. Seekatz (CA 5, 1916), 237 F. 805.8 Midwestern Gas Transmission Co. v. Mason (1964), 31 Ill.2d 340, 201 N.E.2d 379; Northern Illinois Gas Co. v. Wienrack (1965), 66 Ill.App.2d 60, 213 N.W.2d 411.9 M.C.L.A. § 486.254 (Stat.......
-
Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Danekas
...certain things which limit its use and reduce property damage, and it is bound by such stipulation. (Midwestern Gas Transmission Co. v. Mason (1964), 31 Ill.2d 340, 343, 201 N.E.2d 379, appeal dismissed and cert. denied (1965), 380 U.S. 124, 85 S.Ct. 806, 13 L.Ed.2d 792; East Peoria Sanitar......
-
Home Gas Co. v. Miles
...court found an award of Twenty-five Dollars ($25.00) per acre for such rights to be proper, while in Midwestern Gas Transmission Co. v. Mason, 31 Ill.2d 340, 201 N.E.2d 379, the same court affirmed a finding of the Commissioners that such rights had no value to the Each of these cases recog......