Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. v. Bowman

• Decision Date: 09 November 1959
• Docket Number: No. 44554,44554
• Parties: TEXAS EASTERN TRANSMISSION CORPORATION v. Steve Stirling BOWMAN, Jr.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 797

115 So.2d 797

238 La. 399

TEXAS EASTERN TRANSMISSION CORPORATION v. Steve Stirling BOWMAN, Jr.

No. 44554.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Nov. 9, 1959.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 14, 1959.

Hargrove, Guyton & Van Hook, Elmon W. Holmes, Shreveport, for plaintiff-appellant.

Kennon, White & Odom, Baton Rouge, for defendants-appellees.

HAMITER, Justice.

Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation instituted this suit against Steve S. Bowman, Jr. and another action against Thomas C. McKowen, III, and his wife (No. 44,559 on the docket of this court (238 La. 409, 115 So.2d 800)) to expropriate rights of way over properties of those defendants for the construction, maintenance and operation of a natural gas pipeline.

Following separate trials the district judge dismissed both proceedings on the ground that, according to his findings, plaintiff failed to prove that the desired expropriations are for a public purpose and are required by public necessity. And from the judgments the plaintiff appealed.

In this court the defendants have moved to dismiss the appeals (consolidated here for our consideration), they maintaining that the only question to be determined is whether plaintiff has the right to expropriate (inasmuch as public purpose and necessity have not been proved) and that the value of such right is not affirmatively shown by the record.

We find no merit in the motions to dismiss. Appellees do not challenge the authority of appellant to exercise the power of eminent domain; nor could they successfully do so in view of the provisions of LRS 19:2(7) and U.S.C.A. Title 15, Section 717f(h). This being true the value of each right of way sought to be expropriated determines appellate jurisdiction.

While we have found no exactly analogous decisions respecting the jurisdictional issue raised here, the plain implication contained in Rapides Central Ry. Co. v. Missouri Pacific R. Co., 209 La. 26, 24 So.2d 240 and Tennesse Gas Transmission Co. v. Williams, 222 La. 593, 63 So.2d 9, is that if the right of way sought to be taken is valued in excess of $2,000 the appeal lies to this court.

In each of the cases presently under consideration the evidence overwhelmingly discloses that the value of the desired right of way exceeds our jurisdictional minimum. Therefore, the motions to dismiss must be overruled.

Coming now to the merits of the two causes counsel for plaintiff, in their brief to this court, 'submit that the District Court erred in stating that appellant had failed to establish that the right of way sought to be expropriated is necessary in the public interest and for a public purpose.' And counsel for defendants correctly declare that 'there is but one basic issue before this Court on the merits: Has plaintiff-appellant sustained its burden of proving that the right of way sought is for a public purpose and required by public necessity?'

The record discloses that on July 5, 1955 the Federal Power Commission, after a three-day public hearing on an application docketed as No. G-4610, ordered the issuance of a certificate of public convenience and necessity to plaintiff and the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corporation (hereinafter referred to as Transco) thereby permitting an exchange of gas between those companies at certain designated points. Subsequently, specifically on January 31, 1958, such order was amended so as to authorize an additional interconnection between the two systems.

As stated in the amendatory order, the Commission found: 'It is necessary and desirable in the public interest that the Commission's order issued in Docket No. G-4610 on July 5, 1955, be amended to authorize the construction and operation of an additional point of interconnection between the gas systems of Texas Eastern and Transco consisting of a tap on Texas Eastern's 30-inch South Louisiana line near its St. Francisville Compressor Station in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, approximately 1.88 miles of 14-inch pipeline from that point to Transco's Compressor Station No. 6 in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, and a metering station at the new interconnection.' It is for the construction of this described interconnection that plaintiff desires the rights of way involved here.

Concededly, plaintiff corporation was organized for the purpose of, and it engages in, the transporting and marketing of natural gas for public consumption on an interstate basis. And the conducting of its business is, pursuant to an act of Congress adopted June 21, 1938 (U.S.C.A. Title 15, Section 717 et seq.), subject to regulation exclusively by the Federal Power Commission. See Illinois Natural Gas Co. v. Central Illinois Public Service Co., 314 U.S. 498, 62 S.Ct. 384, 86 L.Ed. 371. Hence, it is seriously doubted that we could justifiably question or disregard the order of the Commission (apparently subjected to a collateral attack here by appellants) which recited that it was necessary and desirable in the public interest to permit the installation and operation of the instant interconnecting line, particularly since the mentioned congressional enactme...