Amerada Hess Corp. v. Adee

Defendants appeal from an order of summary judgment rendered against them. They raise four issues: 1) whether the State Highway Department exceeded the contractual limits of its easement on defendants land by allowing plaintiff to lay a gas pipeline; 2) whether the laying of the pipeline by plaintiff created an impermissible additional burden upon the servient estates owned by defendants; 3) whether the law allows imposition of a gas pipeline by a private company not operating as a public utility; and 4) whether plaintiff may exercise the power of eminent domain. We address the first three issues together. Because of our disposition of these issues, we do not address the issue of eminent domain.