Sale V. State Highway And Public Works Commission

The State Highway & Public Works Commission was authorized by G.S. 136-19 to acquire the easement of a right-of-way over petitioners' lands from them by purchase. The consideration for the right-of-way agreement was the payment of $3,622.50 and the removal at the Commission's expense of one two-story frame warehouse and such portion of a lumber shed as is in the right-of-way limits from the right-of-way, and the buildings on the right-of-way, other than trust, under the general contract and at the expense of the Commission. The general contract of the Commission with Bowers Construction Company provided how the buildings should be placed after  the removal. In the opinion in Sale v. Highway Commission, 238 N.C. 599, 78 S.E.2d 724, which involved the same parties and the same subject matter here, we said: "The identical contracts offered in evidence in this case by the petitioners were before this Court in Brown v. Construction Co., 236 N.C. 462, 73 S.E.2d 147. In that case Brown and wife trading as Rock Wool Insulating Company sought to recover damages for the loss by fire of goods stored in the warehouse referred to in this case. This. Court held in referring to the contracts that 'the matter of the removal and reconstruction of the buildings is made a part of the consideration to be paid by the State Highway & Public Works Commission.'"