2015 Tennessee Code
Title 65 - Public Utilities and Carriers
Chapter 29 - Telephone Cooperatives
§ 65-29-125 - Exercise of eminent domain.

(a) No property which is owned or held for public use, nor any interest therein, shall be condemned pursuant to the authority granted in § 65-29-104 if in the judgment of the court the condemnation of such property or interest therein will obstruct, prevent, burden, interfere with, or unduly inconvenience the continued use of such property for the public use of which it is devoted at the time the same is sought to be condemned. Where title to any property sought to be condemned is defective, it shall be passed by decree of court. Where condemnation proceedings become necessary, the court in which such proceedings are filed shall, upon application by the cooperative and upon the posting of a bond with the clerk of the court in such amount as the court may deem commensurate with the value of the property, order that the right of possession shall issue immediately or as soon and upon such terms as the court, in its discretion, may deem proper and just. In cases where condemnation of property already devoted to a public use is sought, no order as to right of possession shall issue until it is finally determined that the condemnor is entitled to condemn such property.

(b) (1) If such cooperative or company has actually taken possession of land, occupying it for the purpose of internal improvement, without condemnation or without the consent of the owner, the owner of such land may petition for a jury of inquest, in which case the same proceedings may be had, as near as may be, as set out in title 29, chapter 16, or amendments thereto; or the owner may sue for damages in the ordinary way, in which case the jury shall lay off the land in metes and bounds and assess the damages, as upon the trial of an appeal from the return of a jury of inquest.

(2) The owner of land shall, in such cases, commence proceedings within twelve (12) months after the land has been actually taken possession of, and the work of the proposed internal improvement begun; saving, however, to unknown owners and nonresidents, twelve (12) months after actual knowledge of such occupation, not exceeding three (3) years, and saving to persons under the disabilities of infancy and unsoundness of mind, twelve (12) months after such disability is removed, but not exceeding ten (10) years.