Hudson v. Board of Transportation
Hudson v. Board of Transportation
Opinion of the Court
By their one assignment of error, plaintiffs contend the court erred in concluding that they have no direct access to the “ramp” constructed on the right-of-way abutting their property.
The pertinent provision of the right-of-way agreement (Exhibit 2) is as follows:
“It is further understood and agreed that the undersigned and their heirs and assigns shall have no right of access to the highway constructed on said right-of-way except by way of ramps constructed or to be constructed at intersection Sta. 253+85.”
In holding as a matter of law under an essentially identical provision in a right-of-way agreement that an adjoining property owner is not entitled to direct access to a ramp, Justice Moore, speaking for our Supreme Court, Abdalla v. Highway Commission, 261 N.C. 114, 120, 134 S.E. 2d 81, 85 (1964), said:
It [a ramp] is not established for the accommodation of abutting landowners; it is for the interchange of traffic between two heavily travelled highways (one overpassing the*438 other). It is indeed the junction or joinder of the two highways. For all practical purposes it is a part of the main highway within the meaning of the word “highway” as set out in the “Right of Way Agreement.”
Apparently recognizing that the holding in Abdalla, supra, represented a formidable obstacle to their claim, plaintiffs argue that when the right-of-way agreement was executed in 1955, the parties intended that the ramp to be constructed on the right-of-way should function not only as a ramp but also as a service road and that as such, any butting property owner would be entitled to unlimited direct access.
Plaintiffs’ interpretation of the intention of the parties, based at least in part on the conduct of the parties after the execution of the agreement, disregards the plain meaning of the agreement which, coupled with the map (Exhibit A), manifests defendant’s intention to construct over the right-of-way acquired from John and Ella Davis a portion of a four-lane controlled access highway including a ramp connecting the two lanes reserved for west bound traffic on U. S. Highway 70 with U. S. Highway 13. Evidence that the plaintiffs and others were permitted by the defendant to use the proposed ramp and proposed service road for two-way traffic pending the completion of the entire project did not vest in plaintiffs or anyone else any rights not reserved by the grantors in the original agreement nor did it deprive the defendant of its rights to use the property for the purpose for which it was acquired. Thus, the trial court’s conclusion that the plaintiffs are not entitled to additional compensation on the ground that they have been denied direct access to the ramp adjoining their property and that the erection of a fence by the defendant between the ramp and plaintiffs’ property is not an additional “taking” within the meaning of the law is
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.