Chapter 54, Chapter 54

The United States of America, the State of West Virginia, and every corporate body politic heretofore or hereafter created by the Constitution or statutes of the state, and every corporation heretofore or hereafter organized under the laws of, or authorized to transact business i…

Any railroad company may, in the manner provided by this chapter, enter upon and take from any land adjacent to or in the vicinity of its road, wood, earth, gravel, shale, stone or other material necessary to be used in constructing, maintaining, repairing, operating, enlarging o…

The power of eminent domain conferred on any incorporated company or body politic by sections one and two of this article shall not be deemed or construed to be limited or restricted in any manner by the enumeration by any other provision of this code of any specific purpose for …

The owner or operator of a coal fired steam electric power plant, the output of which plant is for public use, shall have the right to construct, maintain and operate roads and rail facilities for transporting fuel coal to such power plant as a part of said plant and the same sha…

(a) The public uses for which private property may be taken or damaged are as follows: (1) For the construction, maintenance and operation of railroad and traction lines (including extension, lateral and branch lines, spurs, switches and sidetracks), canals, public landings, whar…

Prior to initiation of any condemnation proceeding pursuant to slum and blight, the applicant must make a reasonable attempt to notify all parties subject to a petition for condemnation provided in section two of this article, and attempt to enter into negotiations for purchase o…

Any incorporated company or body politic, invested with the power of eminent domain under this chapter, by its officers, servants and agents may enter upon lands for the purpose of examining the same, surveying and laying out the lands, ways and easements which it desires to appr…

If the applicant be the State of West Virginia, or any agency or political subdivision thereof, and if the applicant shall have given the person residing thereon, if any, at least three days' notice of its intent, the applicant, by its authorized contractors, officers, agents, an…

No railroad company, or other company of internal improvement, in locating and constructing its lines shall invade the dwelling house of any person, or any space within sixty feet thereof, without the consent of the owner, unless necessary so to do in passing through a narrow gor…

No line for the transportation of natural or artificial gas under pressure or for the transportation of petroleum oil or for the transportation of coal and its derivatives and mixtures and combinations thereof with any substance, and no tank for storing oil or natural gas, shall …

(1) The West Virginia Housing Development Fund, in exercising the power of eminent domain as provided for in section six, article eighteen, chapter thirty-one of this code, shall allege and prove, and the trier of fact shall find, in addition to other requirements of the law, the…

The land acquired by condemnation by any railroad company for its main depots, termini, buildings, machine shops, railroad yards and railroad facilities, and the land or interest therein so acquired by any company incorporated for a work of internal improvement along its line gen…

If any company shall acquire land under the provisions of this chapter, and, in the construction and operation of its work of internal improvement, obstruct or impede the owner of residue of the tract of land from crossing the land so acquired, when such crossing is essential for…

Any corporation, or body politic, authorized to acquire private property for public use under the provisions of this chapter, may acquire an estate in fee simple, or any lesser estate therein. As to any land in which a railroad company shall acquire an estate less than a fee, for…

If any entity having the power of eminent domain under other provisions of this article including any railroad company, canal company, company organized for the purpose of transporting oil or natural or manufactured gas, or both, by means of pipeline, company organized for the pu…

In any case in which property may lawfully be taken for a public use, application may be made by petition to the circuit court or the judge thereof in vacation, of the county in which the estate is situated, to appoint commissioners to ascertain a just compensation to the owners …

Within ten days after the report required by the provisions of section nine of this article is returned and filed, either party may file exceptions thereto, and demand that the question of the compensation, and any damages to be paid, be ascertained by a jury, in which case a jur…

If good cause be shown against the report, or if it be defective or erroneous on its face, the court or judge thereof in vacation, as may seem to be proper, may set it aside or recommit it to the same commissioners for further report; or other commissioners may be appointed in th…

If at any time prior to the appointment of condemnation commissioners, or in the event condemnation commissioners have been appointed, if at any time prior to the making of a report by the condemnation commissioners pursuant to the provisions of section nine of this article, all …

Except as otherwise provided in this article, at any time within three months after the report, or the verdict of a jury, if there be one, has been confirmed and ordered to be recorded, the sum so ascertained with ten percent interest thereon from the date of the filing of the pe…

After such report has once been made, whether it be set aside, recommitted, or new commissioners appointed, or not, or whether a trial by jury be demanded and had or not, the applicant upon paying into court the sum ascertained by such report, with ten percent interest thereon fr…

If the applicant be the State of West Virginia, or any political subdivision thereof, on filing its petition as authorized in this article, and if the court or judge is satisfied that the purpose for which the land or property is sought to be condemned is a public use for which p…

Prior to any report by condemnation commissioners, or verdict of a jury, if the applicant be the State of West Virginia or any political subdivision thereof, and be otherwise authorized by law to make payment as required in this section, on filing its petition as authorized in th…

Any business corporation, entitled to exercise the powers of eminent domain under this chapter, may file with its petition a bond for a sufficient amount with good sureties, payable to the owner of the property proposed to be taken to secure to such owner payment for such propert…

When, after such payment into court as is mentioned in section thirteen of this article a subsequent report is made which is confirmed and ordered to be recorded, or the verdict of a jury is found, if the sum ascertained by such subsequent report or verdict exceed what was so pai…

Except as otherwise specially provided, all costs of a condemnation proceeding in the trial court shall be paid by the applicant. In every condemnation proceeding in an appellate court, costs shall be recovered in such court by the party substantially prevailing.

When judgment is rendered against the applicant, pursuant to the preceding section, for any excess ascertained by such subsequent report or verdict, with interest, the applicant shall thereafter have no right to the possession of the land until the judgment is satisfied; but from…

Payment of an award or judgment, or any money, under any of the provisions of this chapter may be made to the clerk of the court in which such proceeding is had, and such payment shall be deemed to be a payment into court. Within ten days after the payment of an award, judgment o…

Each commissioner shall receive as compensation for services in each eminent domain proceeding a reasonable amount to be fixed by an order entered of record in the proceeding, said compensation not to exceed the sum of $50 per day to be taxed as a part of the costs of the proceed…

The pleadings shall be in writing and shall be verified. The petition shall describe with reasonable certainty the property proposed to be taken, and may embrace one or more parcels of land where the ownership is the same. If an estate less than a fee is proposed to be taken, the…

When land or an estate or interest therein is taken or appropriated under the provisions of this chapter, the clerk of the court in which such proceeding is had shall, at the cost of the applicant, file and record with the clerk of the county court of each county wherein such lan…

The percent interest rate provided for in sections twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fourteen-a, fifteen, sixteen and eighteen of this article, shall be applicable only to condemnation proceedings hereafter instituted. The rate of interest previously applicable to proceedings under the…

In addition to the requirements set forth in section two of this article, a public utility, person or corporation required under section eleven-a, article two, chapter twenty-four of this code to obtain a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the construction and lo…

Of such application ten days' notice shall be served on the owners, claimants and persons holding liens, whose interests the applicant seeks to condemn, and the notice may be given either before the petition is presented or afterwards. But where the owners of the real estate prop…

(a) The court shall protect the rights of any person who is under a legal disability because he or she is a protected person, as defined in section two (a), article one, chapter forty-four-a of this code, or incarcerated, and whose ownership interest, lien or other claim to prope…

At the time of the filing of an eminent domain petition, the applicant may file a notice of the pendency of such proceeding as provided in section two, article eleven, chapter fifty-five of this code, containing the information therein required so far as the provisions therein ar…

When it shall appear to the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, that proper notice has been given and that the case is one in which the applicant has lawful right to take property for the purposes stated in the petition, upon making just compensation, five disinterested free…

The appointment shall be made as follows: Thirteen disinterested freeholders shall be nominated by the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, of whom the applicant may strike off four from the list, and the defendant or defendants may also strike off four, and after eight names…

Before entering upon the discharge of his duties, each commissioner shall take an oath, before some person authorized by law to administer it, that he will honestly, faithfully, and impartially ascertain to the best of his skill and judgment what will be a just compensation to th…

Before entering upon the discharge of his duties, each commissioner shall be informed generally, in writing or otherwise, by the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, as to the duties and responsibilities of a condemnation commissioner and as to the law applicable to the delib…

The court may, and upon motion of any party shall, preside over and supervise all hearings held by the condemnation commission or appoint for such purpose one of its own commissioners, or a special commissioner, to be known as a court commissioner, who shall preside over and supe…

Any three of the commissioners may act in the absence of the others, and any one of them may sign and issue subpoenas for witnesses in like manner as a justice, and with like effect; and may swear any witness who appears before them, that the evidence which he will give relating …

The commissioners, after viewing the property, if a view is demanded, and hearing any proper evidence which is offered shall ascertain what will be a just compensation to the person entitled thereto for so much thereof as is proposed to be taken, or for the interest therein, if l…

If the report of the commissioners includes any sum for damages, in addition to the sum for just compensation for the property, or interest or right therein, proposed to be taken, the commissioners shall, if the owner or owners of the property request the same, state in their rep…

As used in this article, the term: (1) "Federal act" means the "Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970", being Public Law 91-646, enacted by the ninety-first Congress of the United States of America, and the 1987 amendments thereto known …

The purposes of this article are: (1) To require the establishment of a uniform policy for the fair and equitable treatment by state agencies of persons displaced from property in order that such persons shall not suffer disproportionate injuries as a result of programs designed …

In order to accomplish the purposes set forth in section two of this article and to satisfy the requirements of adequately compensating displaced persons under such federal acts, each acquiring agency is hereby required and is hereby granted plenary power and authority to adopt r…

Neither the provisions of this article nor any rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to section three of this article are intended to abrogate or derogate the provisions of section twenty, article two-a, chapter seventeen of this code, and, to the extent not in conflict with…

If any provision of this article or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held unconstitutional or invalid, such unconstitutionality or invalidity shall not affect, impair or invalidate other provisions or applications of the article, and to this end the provis…