1976

Kricorian v. Chesapeake & Potomac Tel. Co.

Supreme Court of Virginia

217 Va. 284, 227 S.E.2d 725

C & P Telephone needed to expand aging facilities and sought acquisition of landowner’s lot and apartment house. Landowner responded by asserting uses were not for public purposes and that C & P had no authority to condemn property for the purposes specified. Trial court allowed matter to proceed and commissioners awarded $44,500 for property. Va. Code § 56-49(2) permits public service corporations to condemn lands for uses serving the public. However, a strip of land for a right-of-way within sixty feet of a dwelling may not be effective until a court with jurisdiction holds that no other reasonable alternative is available. But this procedure does not apply when the entire lot and dwelling is taken. The evidence did not support the landowner’s contention that the taking was not necessary. C & P did not have to comply with Va. Code § 56-265.2 and get prior approval from the State Corporation Commission, as the work being done was ordinary extensions or improvements in the usual course of business, and judgment was affirmed.

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