North Carolina State Highway Commission v. Asheville School, Inc.

The plaintiff’s exceptions and assignments of error raise the following question: Was the taking of the property in question in connection with a controlled access highway project and for the sole purpose of providing a private driveway into property that had been landlocked by the same project, a taking for a “public use”?

We note that the disputed area contains .074 acres of the 5.78 acres of new right-of-way which the plaintiff is seeking to acquire from a tract of defendant’s land consisting of some 277 acres. Irrespective of the size or value of land taken, however, “(i)t is not a trivial…