In Re Department of Transportation, State of Colorado, Petitioner v. Amerco Real Estate Company, a Nevada…

Summary

The court held that the transportation commission could not delegate to the Department of Transportation the statutory responsibility to decide which specific properties should be taken for a highway-alteration project and under what compensation limitations. Because the commission had not approved the taking of U-Haul's particular property by written resolution, the court made its rule to show cause absolute and ordered dismissal of the condemnation petition. Justice Gabriel, concurring in the judgment, agreed that the Department lacked authority to condemn but would have reached that result on the ground that the Department lacked statutory or properly delegated authority and disagreed with the majority's construction of the governing statute.