Thomas R. Lingle v. Citizens Water of Westfield, LLC

── Thomas R. Lingle v. Citizens Water of Westfield, LLC ── Court: Indiana Court of Appeals Date: April 20, 2026 Author: Peter Foley Category: General FILED Apr 20 2026, 10:05 am CLERK Indiana Supreme Court Court of Appeals and Tax Court IN THE Court of Appeals of Indiana Thomas R. Lingle, Appellant-Defendant v. Citizens Water of Westfield, LLC, Appellee-Plaintiff April 20, 2026 Court of Appeals Case No. 25A-PL-1898 Appeal from the Hamilton Superior Court The Honorable J. Richard Campbell, Judge Trial Court Cause No. 29D04-2504-PL-4596 Opinion by Judge Foley Chief Judge Tavitas and Judge Kenworthy concur. Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 25A-PL-1898 | April 20, 2026 Page 1 of 10  Foley, Judge. 1 [1] In this eminent domain action, Citizens Water of Westfield, LLC (“Citizens”) sought an easement across real estate belonging to Thomas R. Lingle (“Lingle”) as part of a water line project. Lingle appeals from an order (1) overruling his objections to Citizens’ complaint appropriating his real property and (2) granting Citizens an easement that included rights for sewer, gas, and other utility services in addition to the water line. We find a single issue dispositive: whether the easement granted to Citizens included use rights that exceeded the scope of Citizens’ identified purpose of a water line extension. [2] We conclude as a matter of law that Citizens did not establish a need for the additional utility uses. We therefore reverse the order overruling the objections to the scope of the easement sought and reverse the order of appropriation. Facts and Procedural History 2 [3] Citizens—an Indiana public utility—filed a Complaint for Appropriation of Real Estate Interest on April 25, 2025, seeking a permanent, non-exclusive easement across Lingle’s real property in Westfield, Indiana. 3 Citizens alleged 1 We held oral argument on Thursday, March 19, 2026, at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. We thank Dean Bravo, the law school, and the Moot Court Board for their generous hospitality, and we thank counsel for modeling skilled oral advocacy. We also thank the attending students, who posed incisive questions to the bench and the advocates following the oral argument. 2 Concurrent with this opinion, we issue substantially the same opinion in a companion case, Bahler v. Citizens Water of Westfield, LLC, No. 25A-PL-1922 (Ind. Ct. App. April 20, 2026). 3 The complaint also named Lingle’s wife, who has not participated in the action. Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 25A-PL-1898 | April 20, 2026 Page 2 of 10  the easement was necessary “[f]or its project to install a water transmission line in Hamilton County” as part of the Central Feeder Main Project. Appellant’s App. Vol. 2 p. 23. Citizens included a proposed easement description that would grant Citizens the right to “survey, construct, install, operate, use, maintain, test, inspect, modify, change the size of, replace, renew, relocate,