State ex rel. Missouri Highway & Transportation Commission v. Starling Plaza Partnership

ROBERTSON, Chief Justice.

Under the tripartite rule of unity first announced in The Wyandotte, Kansas City and Northwestern Railway Company v. Waldo, 70 Mo. 629 (1879), damages in eminent domain are measured against the whole of the condemnee’s property where separate but contiguous parcels bear a common ownership and unity of use. The issue in this case is whether a landowner who owns three contiguous parcels of land that are used for a common purpose may restructure ownership as to one parcel following the filing of a condemnation action to defeat the unity of ownership of the whole tract…