Patel v. Southern California Water Co‪.‬

The real question raised by this appeal is whether a public utility has the power of eminent domain to take private property for a purpose, say, simply making money, that is unrelated to the actual service the utility provides the public. The answer is, of course, no. Accordingly, we affirm a judgment based on the conclusion that when a water company allowed two cell phone companies to use a water-related easement for non-water related purposes, the only thing that was happening was simple trespass, not inverse condemnation.