Section 22 Easement of Ingress and Egress

• Library: Condemnation Practice 2009

Although there does not have to be any actual physical taking of property, there has to be an invasion or appropriation of some valuable property right that directly and specifically affects the landowner to the landowner’s injury. Marvin E. Nieberg Real Estate Co. v. St. Louis County, 488 S.W.2d 626 (Mo. 1973). An abutting landowner on a street or highway has a right in the form of an easement to reasonable ingress and egress from the abutting landowner’s property to the general system of roads on which the abutting landowner can exercise the right to travel. Wilson v. Kansas City, 162 S.W.2d 802 (Mo. 1942).

Property has not been taken or damaged in the constitutional sense if the landowner is furnished unrestricted access to a roadway that abuts the landowner’s property and is allowed reasonable access to the general system of roads. State ex rel....