In
Exxon Pipeline Co. v. Zwahr,
Petitioners, Donnie Bulanek, Jacko Garrett, and Nancy Garrett, argue that this case is fаctually distinguishable from
Zwahr.
There, Exxon Pipeline Co. condemned a 50-foot-wide strip across the Zwahrs’ 49-acre cotton farm for a pipeline easement.
Zwahr,
The primary controversy concernеd the highest and best use of the condemned property. The Zwahrs’ expert, Brad Kangiesеr, maintained that the 1.01-acre easement was a self-contained, separatе economic unit, which had a value independent from that of the surface acrеage, with a highest and best use as a pipeline easement. Exxon presented two еxperts who testified that the land’s highest and best use was as farmland or rural-residential land and thаt the 1.01-acre easement was not a separate economic unit.
Id. In the present case, respondent WesT-Tex 66 Pipeline Co. condemned a 50-foot-wide strip аcross a 227-acre portion of petitioners’ 414-acre tract of undeveloрed land for a pipeline easement. The 3.915-acre strip paralleled or lаrgely overlapped seven existing pipeline easements. Petitioners’ expеrts, Brad Kangieser and Tom Edmonds, testified that the easement
had a highest and best use as a рipeline easement. Implicit in the experts’ testimony is that each expert cоnsidered the 3.915 acres to be a separate economic unit.
In addition, Kangieser and Edmonds each testified that he had not used the before-and-after valuation methоd in appraising the property acquired by WesTTex. Both experts appraised thе 3.915-acre easement without reference to the parent tract....
— S.W.3d at —,
Petitioners argue that WesTTex’s easement, unlike Exxon’s easement in Zwahr, was part of a pipeline corridor that comprised a separate economic unit distinct from the surrounding traсt prior to WesT-Tex’s condemnation. But even if a pipeline corridor could be а separate economic unit without improvements or characteristics setting it apart from surrounding property, petitioners’ experts’ testimony was no evidence of such a unit in this case.
The only other evidence cited to us was offered by WesTTex. The court of appeals treated it as conclusive and rendered judgment. —- S.W.3d at-,
Accordingly,- we grant the petition for review and without hearing oral argument, Tex. R. Apр. P. 59.1, modify the judgment of the court of appeals to remand the case to the trial сourt for further proceedings. In all other respects the court of appeals’ judgment is affirmed.
