Landowner Rights / Eminent Domain
The power of eminent domain is real, but it’s not unlimited, and the companies and agencies that claim it often claim more of it than the law gives them. Griffin Humphries represents South Carolina landowners who want those limits enforced and full value for anything that’s taken.
Condemning authorities must have legal authority to condemn, must follow the procedures South Carolina law requires, and must pay just compensation. Griffin Humphries attorneys stand with landowners at every stage of that fight, from the first knock on the door to trial and appeal. Condemnors arrive with in-house appraisers, right-of-way agents, and teams of lawyers whose job is to acquire property as cheaply and quickly as possible. Landowners deserve trial lawyers prepared to push back.
The Landowner’s Side of the Table
Badge Humphries leads the firm’s landowner rights practice. Badge previously served as Ducks Unlimited’s Director of Land Protection for the South Atlantic Region, where the great majority of his work involved negotiating conservation easements with landowners across the ACE Basin and other conservation-priority areas of South Carolina.
That work put him on the landowner’s side of the table. It meant working with appraisers to value what an easement takes from a property, the same diminution-in-value and highest-and-best-use analysis at the heart of every condemnation case (and the analysis that can qualify a landowner who conserves for tax benefits). It also meant evaluating the habitat, timber, open space, and other conservation values that make this region’s land worth protecting. He has since represented landowners in eminent domain and other property rights matters, including litigation arising from the October 2015 floods in Columbia. For owners of land in an area of conservation priority, those conservation values are often a large part of what the property is really worth, and our approach to compensation reflects that fact.
Our Work on the Elba Express Bridge Project
Griffin Humphries represents a landowner trust, individually and on behalf of a putative class believed to include more than 90 landowners in Hampton and Colleton Counties, in litigation over the Elba Express Bridge Project, a proposed natural gas pipeline expansion of Elba Express Company, L.L.C., a Kinder Morgan company. Petitions filed in the Hampton County Court of Common Pleas seek court-ordered access to enter and survey private land along the proposed pipeline route.
On July 8, 2026, the firm moved to dismiss the survey-access petitions and filed an answer asserting putative class action counterclaims naming Elba Express Company, L.L.C. as a counterclaim-defendant. The filings contend, among other things, that the petitioner lacks condemnation authority under South Carolina law, and they seek declaratory and related relief. Those proceedings are pending; no court has ruled on the claims or certified any class, and, as with any litigation, no outcome can be guaranteed.
Landowners along the route have been approached by land agents with permission forms and letters suggesting the company already has a right to enter their property for civil, environmental, and archaeological surveys. You’re not required to sign anything. A company seeking access over a landowner’s objection must go to court and prove it actually has the authority it claims. Whether it does is exactly what this litigation is about.
If you own land along the proposed Elba Express Bridge Project route, we would like to hear from you, whether you have been asked to permit surveys, have found crews or agents on your property without permission, or expect to face condemnation if the project proceeds. We are particularly interested in speaking with landowners whose property has been entered by agents, surveyors, or contractors of Elba Express Company, L.L.C. without permission. Evidence of unauthorized entries is important to the pending action, and the firm is investigating and evaluating landowners’ potential trespass claims against Elba Express Company, L.L.C.
Trespass and Unauthorized Entry
A company that enters private land without the owner’s consent or lawful authority commits a trespass, and the landowner may recover damages, even when the entry is described as “just a survey.” Crews cutting survey lines, flagging routes, boring soil samples, or driving equipment across fields and timberland can damage crops, timber, roads, and fences. And even when they cause no damage, the entry itself violates the right to exclude others from your land, one of the most basic rights that comes with owning property.
South Carolina law takes the right to exclude seriously. Where a trespasser’s conduct is willful, wanton, or reckless, a jury may award punitive damages in addition to actual damages, even where the physical harm to the property is minimal. Under South Carolina law, punitive damages of up to $500,000, and more in certain circumstances, can be available even where the actual damages awarded are nominal.
Griffin Humphries investigates and pursues trespass claims for landowners, including claims arising from unauthorized entries connected to proposed pipeline and utility projects. If surveyors, land agents, or contractors have entered your property without permission, including in connection with surveys for the Elba Express Bridge Project, preserve any photographs, videos, or notes about the entry and contact us.
Challenging the Taking
South Carolina’s Constitution permits private property to be taken only for a public use, and a constitutional amendment approved by South Carolina voters in 2006 tightened that requirement to prevent takings for private economic development. Statutes delegating the condemnation power are strictly construed against the entity claiming it. Together, these rules mean a taking can be challenged on multiple grounds, including:
- The condemnor lacks statutory authority to condemn the property
- The project does not serve a genuine public use or public necessity
- The condemnor failed to follow the procedures required by the South Carolina Eminent Domain Procedure Act, including the appraisal, written offer, and negotiation requirements
- The scope of the taking exceeds what the project requires
- Not every taking can be stopped. But condemning authorities do not get the benefit of the doubt, and landowners should never assume that a company’s claim of authority is correct simply because it appears in a letter or a court filing.
Just Compensation
When a taking is lawful, the fight becomes what the condemnor must pay. The constitutional standard is just compensation, measured by fair market value, and the condemnor’s first offer rarely reflects it. Rejecting the offer carries no penalty and does not jeopardize your right to seek more. Full compensation often turns on issues the condemnor’s appraisal understates or ignores entirely:
- The property’s highest and best use, which may differ from its current use
- Severance damages for the loss in value to the land that remains after a partial taking
- Changes in access, visibility, parking, drainage, or the shape and utility of the remaining property
- The burden of easements, including the long-term impact of a pipeline or transmission line on the property’s value and future development
- Habitat, timber, recreational, and other conservation values that standard condemnation appraisals overlook
- Temporary construction easements and damage caused during construction
We work with qualified, independent appraisers and other experts to establish the full measure of compensation, and we prepare every case to be tried to a jury if the condemnor will not pay it.
Inverse Condemnation
Sometimes the government or a utility takes or damages property without ever filing a condemnation action. It may flood the land, block access to it, occupy part of it, or regulate it so severely that its value is destroyed. In those circumstances, the landowner can bring the fight to the condemnor through an inverse condemnation action, asking a court to declare that a taking has occurred and to award just compensation for it.
Representing Landowner Groups
Infrastructure projects rarely affect a single parcel. A pipeline, transmission line, or highway corridor can cross dozens or hundreds of properties, and the condemnor’s strategy is usually the same on each one. Our approach is coordinated representation: landowners facing a common project stand together, share knowledge, present a unified front, and avoid being picked off one at a time. We plan to take that approach in the Elba Express Bridge Project matter.
Talk to Us Before You Sign
The most expensive mistakes in eminent domain cases happen early: signing a survey permission form, accepting a first offer, or negotiating with land agents without counsel. If you have been contacted about a pipeline, utility, or road project, if crews have entered your land without permission, or if the government or a private company is seeking to enter or take your land, contact Griffin Humphries for a confidential consultation before you respond.