May v. Ohio Turnpike Com

May v. Ohio Turnpike Com. (1962) 172 Ohio St. 555 178 N.E.2d 920, concerned a single property that became landlocked after acquisitions of land for construction of a turnpike. (Id., 178 N.E.2d at p. 922.) In May, the turnpike commission was attempting to avoid a contractual obligation to construct a private access road from the plaintiff's landlocked property, across others' private property, to the road. (Id. at pp. 921-922.) The commission contended, among other things, that the exercise of eminent domain authority for the purpose of constructing an access road to private property was unconstitutional because the acquisitions were not for a public use. (Id. at p. 922.) The court, relying upon the reasoning of Luke v. Mass. Turnpike Auth. (1958) 337 Mass. 304, 309 149, N.E.2d 225, rejected that contention and held that the commission had "the authority, under the Ohio Constitution and the statutes, to acquire, by purchase or by the right of eminent domain, the land or the easements necessary to construct the access road which the defendant agreed to construct ... ." (May, at p. 922.)