Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. v. State Highway Commission
Headline: Court reverses state highway commission’s order forcing a pipeline company to relocate buried transmission lines without compensation, finding the statute permits unconstitutional takings and cannot be enforced as written.
Holding: The Kansas statute and the Commission’s order, as applied to force pipeline relocations without compensation, permit an unconstitutional taking and the lower court’s mandamus judgment is reversed and remanded.
- Stops highway commissions from forcing pipeline relocation without compensation under the challenged statute.
- Protects private utility rights-of-way from unilateral state orders absent clear legal authority.
- Sends the case back for further proceedings consistent with the Court’s constitutional ruling.
Summary
Background
A Delaware pipeline company had acquired private rights of way in Kansas and built buried transmission lines and auxiliary telephone lines beginning in 1930. In 1933 the Kansas Highway Commission, created by a 1929 law, planned new or widened highways that crossed the company’s rights of way at six places. The company refused to move or alter its lines unless the Commission agreed to repay the cost. Relying on a statutory provision that purported to let the Commission require relocation of poles, pipes, and wires, the Commission ordered the company to proceed without compensation and obtained a peremptory writ of mandamus from the Kansas courts to force compliance.
Reasoning
The central question was whether the state law and the Commission’s order could constitutionally force the company to pay the relocation costs, effectively taking private property without compensation in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court concluded that the statute, as construed and applied, would authorize arbitrary and unreasonable orders that amount to taking property without providing compensation. The Court distinguished railroad-crossing cases where implied consent and a serious public danger justified such regulation, finding pipelines buried beneath highways were not shown to create comparable hazards. The opinion noted earlier cases where pipes had been placed by agreement are different from this situation.
Real world impact
The ruling prevents the Highway Commission from enforcing §16 to compel pipeline relocations without a constitutionally adequate basis, such as compensation or clear prior agreement. The decision returns the dispute for further proceedings consistent with the Court’s view that state police power does not override constitutional protections against uncompensated takings. The judgment below was reversed and the case remanded for further action.
Dissents or concurrances
Two Justices (Stone and Cardozo) joined only in the result, concurring in the judgment to reverse and remand.
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