High court: Upgrades to transmission lines don’t change pre-1975 easements

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court has found that utility companies need not obtain new utility easements from owners of property adjacent to a transmission line whenever that line is upgraded in order to continue maintaining it.

Thursday’s unanimous decision written by Justice Michael Gableman leaves the thousands of utility easements granted before 1975 in place, allaying utilities’ concerns that they could be exposed to legal challenges every time they replace equipment on transmission lines.

The high court handed a loss to a pair of Waupaca residents, Ricardo and Julie Garza, who sued American Transmission Co. in 2011 after ATC had sent contractors in to trim and cut down more than 60 trees on their property at 460 Woodland Circle. ATC, which owns and operates a large part of Wisconsin’s electrical grid, had received rights in 1969 to repair and maintain transmission lines near the Garzas’ property.

In their lawsuit, the Garzas argued those rights should apply only to the single-voltage transmission line and wooden poles that were originally on their property. They contended that when ATC installed a replacement with a double-voltage line and steel poles, it should have asked for new rights.

The justices disagreed on Thursday, concluding that the change from wood to steel poles had been reasonable and had not put an additional burden on the Garzas. The court also found that the language establishing the rights ATC obtained in 1969 had allowed the company to upgrade and build the transmission lines as it wished. The justices further found that the rights were intended to allow ATC to transmit electricity and that the replacement of the original poles with steel poles had not altered that purpose.

In general, the justices appeared to agree with ATC, which had argued that it should be allowed to clear and trim trees because there was nothing in its rights that limited it to constructing or maintaining a particular type of transmission line. The company had also argued that utility companies should be allowed to make change in response to advances in technology and that those changes should not affect its rights to maintain a line or the area around it.

Thursday’s decision reversed a previous Court of Appeals’ decision in favor of the Garzas and upheld a ruling by Waupaca County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis in favor of ATC.