|
wise, to take this out of the draft, and the
reason I feel that way so strongly is that
a taking is something which is tied clown
to the concrete, but when you say "or
damaged,'' in other words, damaged regard-
less of the taking and not incidental to the
taking, but independent of the taking, then,
you really have no criteria. The word "dam-
age" in its fullest import would mean any
detriment which is suffered by anybody
in the neighborhood or in the State for that
matter by a particular taking. That is the
great danger.
Now, the Attorney General through his
experience with the state roads certainly
ought to know something about this. He
tells us that in his estimate he figured that
the cost of every condemnation in the
State would probably be doubled.
We have no right to write a term like
that into the constitution. The legislature
has plenary power to remedy any wrongs
which are put before it. It can extend the
scope of damage, but I submit that we
should not put this in the constitution.
THE PRESIDENT: Any delegates desire
to speak in opposition to the amendment?
Delegate Burgess.
DELEGATE BURGESS: Ladies and gen-
tlemen of the Convention, there seems to be
a trend in certain areas of this Convention
and particularly in the attorney general's
office that nobody else knows how to read
a lawbook or make a determination of what
the law is. There are some of us who have
had some exposure to the law and I say
to you without qualification, I have very
carefully studied this problem. You are
being fed the fullest snow job in the full-
est sense of the word. That memorandum
from the attorney general he ought to be
ashamed of. I have had exposure on the
problem of right of way. It is like asking
the proverbial fox to watch the hen house.
This means work for these gentlemen.
This means they cannot go helter-skelter
full speed ahead. We are talking about
flesh and blood. The people in Delegate
Delia's area have suffered from this.
We ask the attorney general to research
it and to advise us as to what happened
and what developed. We wanted to know
about it. Had there been any such area I
would have asked for the amendment. We
have researched it to the n'th degree. We
know what we are talking about. We can
read the law and we understand it and we
have tried our share of cases and ladies
and gentlemen, it is people we are talking
|
about; we are not talking about the State
Roads Commission and all the rest of it.
All these people have answers. What an-
swers do they give to the little man who is
economically destroyed by this?
Let us not kid ourselves. We are talking
about flesh and blood people, and people
are being cut up and destroyed by this
thing. If we do not draw the line some-
where as they have done in forty-seven
states, if the memoranda we keep sub-
mitting were not so studiously ignored,
some of these people would be enlightened.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Marvin
Smith.
DELEGATE M. SMITH: Mr. Chairman,
let me say first of all I have never had a
case from the State Roads Commission. I am
a Republican. (Laughter) Those things just
do not filter down to our end and the odds
are that they will not.
Therefore, my experience in condemna-
tion cases has been where I have been rep-
resenting people whose property has been
taken. If we leave this word "damaged" in
there you will indeed put some money into
my pocket. That is not the responsible way
to approach this matter. The responsible
way to approach it is that there should be
a study in depth by the proper committee of
the General Assembly and let the General
Assembly study it.
Let us not be swept away by appeals
by poor people whose property is being
taken. I feel strongly about it. The respon-
sible way to go about this is to give full,
adequate, and complete study to it which
has not been done to this point.
Now, let me point out that Chairman
Kiefer, with all clue respect to him, made
an obvious misstatement here when he
said that the State could take your property
now without compensation. This is not true
under the Fourteenth Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States. You
should support this amendment.
THE PRESIDENT: Any other delegate
desire to speak against?
Delegate Dukes.
DELEGATE DUKES: Mr. Chairman and
fellow delegates, unlike Delegate Smith,
I have had an occasional title search. I
suppose it is possible ten years from now
to say I have not had any since 1967.
Nonetheless, I did accompany Delegate
Burgess up to the balcony above and we
talked with Semelman there and we told
him we did not want a bankrupt State. We
|
