HB 2036: Condemnation proceedings; establishing requirements for reimbursement of certain expenses; effective date. - Oklahoma

Floor (House) → Floor (Senate) · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill amends Oklahoma's eminent domain laws to expand reimbursement rights for property owners when condemnation proceedings fail or result in high legal costs. It specifically adds protection for right-of-way acquisitions for oil and gas pipelines and clarifies the conditions under which owners can recover attorney, appraisal, and engineering fees.

Scope change

The bill's scope is expanded to explicitly include right-of-way acquisitions for oil and gas pipelines under the reimbursement provisions.

SCOPE

Added specific language to include right-of-way for oil and gas pipelines in the list of properties eligible for reimbursement of legal expenses.

ELIGIBILITY

Clarified and expanded the conditions under which a property owner may be reimbursed for legal fees, including scenarios where a jury award exceeds the court's award or a written offer by at least 10%.

REQUIREMENT

Updated the notice procedures for jury trials to ensure all parties, including unrepresented owners, receive copies of the commissioners' report and time limits for filing exceptions.

TIMELINE

Adjusted the deadline for filing a demand for a jury trial to 60 days after the commissioners' report is filed, and set a 75-day window for submitting a written offer of just compensation.

House Committee Substitute → HB2036 (5-06-25) (MURDOCK) FS FA1.PDF · 1 edit

MINOR

The bill was converted from a 'Committee Substitute' to a 'Floor Substitute' after being amended by the Senate, adding the Senate sponsor Murdock to the authorship. The substantive text of the bill remains unchanged, preserving the rules for reimbursing legal fees when condemnation proceedings fail or when jury awards exceed specific thresholds.

Scope change

The bill's scope and applicability are unchanged; only the legislative history and authorship metadata were updated to reflect Senate amendments.

TECHNICAL

The bill title was updated from 'Committee Substitute' to 'Floor Substitute' and the Senate sponsor (Murdock) was added to the list of authors.

Proposed Committee Substitute (full committee) 1 → House Committee Substitute · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill amends Oklahoma's eminent domain laws to expand reimbursement rights for property owners when condemnation proceedings fail or result in a significantly higher jury award. It specifically adds 'right-of-way for oil and gas pipelines' to the list of properties eligible for fee reimbursement and clarifies the conditions under which owners can recover legal and appraisal costs.

Scope change

The bill expands the scope of eligible properties to include oil and gas pipeline rights-of-way, which were not explicitly mentioned in the previous version.

SCOPE

Added 'right-of-way for oil and gas pipelines' to the list of properties eligible for fee reimbursement when condemnation fails.

ELIGIBILITY

Refined the conditions for reimbursing attorney and appraisal fees, specifically addressing scenarios where a jury award exceeds the court-appointed commissioners' award or a written offer by the condemning authority.

REQUIREMENT

Updated notice and filing procedures for reviewing commissioner reports and demanding jury trials to ensure proper service and publication of notices.

TIMELINE

Clarified time limits for filing exceptions or demanding a jury trial, calculating them from the date the commissioner's report is filed.

Enrolled (final version) → Proposed Committee Substitute (full committee) 1 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was completely rewritten by the committee to clarify its purpose and expand its scope. The primary change is the addition of a new category allowing reimbursement of legal fees when eminent domain proceedings involve oil and gas pipelines, which was not explicitly included in the original version. The committee also reorganized the text to improve readability and updated the title to reflect these new provisions.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to explicitly include right-of-way for oil and gas pipelines as a qualifying reason for reimbursement of legal expenses, whereas the original text only listed general condemnation scenarios.

SCOPE

Added a new condition allowing fee reimbursement when the condemnation involves right-of-way for oil and gas pipelines.

REQUIREMENT

Reorganized the statutory language to separate conditions for reimbursement into distinct numbered paragraphs for clarity.

TECHNICAL

Updated the bill title and subject line to accurately reflect the new inclusion of oil and gas pipeline provisions.

Engrossed → Enrolled (final version) · 5 edits · May 21, 2025

MODERATE

The bill was finalized and refined to clarify its purpose, update statutory references, and ensure gender-neutral language. The core policy regarding reimbursement of legal fees for property owners remains largely the same, but the text was reorganized to explicitly define when a jury trial is requested by both parties versus only the condemning authority.

Scope change

The bill's scope was clarified to include oil and gas pipelines in the description, and the applicability of fee reimbursement was explicitly tied to specific scenarios involving jury trials and abandoned proceedings.

REQUIREMENT

The bill text was updated to change the title from 'eminent domain' to 'condemnation proceedings' and added specific details about expanding applicability to oil and gas pipelines.

Statutory references were updated to reflect the most current year (2021) and corrected the title of the court administrator to 'Administrative Director of the Courts'.

The conditions for reimbursing attorney fees were restructured to clearly distinguish between cases where only the owner requests a jury trial and cases where both the owner and the condemning authority request a trial.

The text was streamlined to remove redundant phrasing and consolidate the rules regarding when written offers of compensation are considered 'timely'.

DEFINITION

Language was updated to be gender-neutral, changing references from 'his' to 'his or her' or 'their' where appropriate.

Amended And Engrossed → Engrossed · 4 edits · May 8, 2025

MODERATE

This amendment updates the bill's title and summary to reflect new provisions for reimbursing attorney, appraisal, and engineering fees when condemnation proceedings fail or result in a high jury award. It also clarifies the timeline for filing exceptions to a commissioner's report and demands for jury trials, ensuring parties receive proper notice and have a clear deadline to challenge the property valuation.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to explicitly include reimbursement for legal and professional fees in specific condemnation scenarios, and the procedural requirements for challenging property valuations were refined.

SCOPE

The bill's title and summary were updated to include 'right-of-way for oil and gas pipelines' and clarify that the act relates to reimbursement of expenses when property is not acquired under condemnation.

FISCAL

The reimbursement criteria were refined to allow owners to recover reasonable attorney, appraisal, and engineering fees if the final judgment states property cannot be acquired, the proceeding is abandoned, or a jury award exceeds the court-appointed commissioners' award by at least 10%.

TIMELINE

The deadline for filing written exceptions to a commissioner's report or demanding a jury trial was standardized to 30 days after the report is filed, with a 20-day extension available if the clerk fails to provide notice on time.

REQUIREMENT

Procedural requirements were updated to ensure the court clerk forwards the commissioner's report and notice of time limits to all parties, including unrepresented owners, and publishes the notice in a newspaper if a party was served by publication.

Introduced → Amended And Engrossed · 3 edits · May 8, 2025

MINOR

The bill was amended to expand the reimbursement of legal and appraisal fees to include right-of-way for oil and gas pipelines, which were previously excluded. The amendment also updated the bill's title and statutory descriptions to reflect this broader scope and included various technical corrections to the text.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to include condemnation proceedings specifically for oil and gas pipelines, whereas the original version did not explicitly cover this type of infrastructure.

SCOPE

Added explicit inclusion of right-of-way for oil and gas pipelines to the list of properties eligible for fee reimbursement under eminent domain.

DEFINITION

Updated the bill's title and summary descriptions to accurately reflect the new scope and include gender-neutral language.

TECHNICAL

Corrected statutory references and formatting errors throughout the bill text to ensure consistency with existing laws.

Condemnation proceedings; establishing requirements for reimbursement of certain expenses; effective date.

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