Patel

I. Introduction

The real question raised by this appeal is whether a public utility has the power of eminent domain to take private property for a purpose, say, simply making money, that is unrelated to the actual service the utility provides the public. The answer is, of course, no. Accordingly, we affirm a judgment based on the conclusion that when a water company allowed two cell phone companies to use a water-related easement for non-water-related purposes, the only thing that was happening was simple trespass, not inverse condemnation.

II. Facts

Arnrit and Hasu Patel bought their mostly unimproved Cowan Heights lot in the late 1980’s. An adjoining parcel owned by the Southern California Water Company is essentially land-locked, with the only access to a street over the Patels’ parcel. The water company was granted an easement across what would later be the Patels’ land in 1981. The easement was restricted to “ingress, egress and passage across with all the necessary materials, tools, supplies, and other equipment necessary for the installing, enlarging, replacing, maintaining and operation of other water supply facilities located on adjacent land.”

In 1995, the…