Department of Transportation ex rel. People v. Farnsworth

The plaintiff, Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), appeals from a judgment that fixed the amount of compensation for fill material taken from the defendant landowners in an eminent domain proceeding. The issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred by allowing the material to be valued according to the number of cubic yards taken, rather than as an element of the land upon which it sat. We hold that the valuation method used by the trial court was appropriate under the facts of this case. Therefore, we affirm.

IDOT filed a condemnation complaint to acquire an easement over the…