Town of Apple Valley v. Apple Valley Ranchos Water

Summary

The California Supreme Court held that the gross abuse of discretion standard of Code of Civil Procedure section 1245.255(b) does not govern a privately owned utility's objection to a public entity's right to take its property; that standard is confined to challenges to the validity of a resolution of necessity, while objections to the right to take proceed under distinct provisions. Because the 1992 amendments converted the presumptions attending takings of electric, gas, or water utility property into rebuttable presumptions affecting the burden of proof, the trial court, sitting as trier of fact, must exercise independent judgment to determine whether the utility owner has rebutted them by establishing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the taking is not authorized by the Eminent Domain Law. On that basis the court reversed the Court of Appeal, which had sustained the Town on deferential-review grounds, and remanded for further proceedings, leaving the contested question of post-resolution evidence for the Court of Appeal to address in the first instance.