Rule 86.07.Different Owners May be Joined in One Petition.

Rule 86.07 is one of the shortest rules in the condemnation group, but it serves a practical purpose. Large projects — a road, a pipeline, a utility corridor — often cross many separately owned tracts of land. Without this rule, a condemnor might need to file a separate petition for every parcel along the route.

Instead, the rule lets a condemnor bring the owners of any number of tracts into one petition. Each owner's damages are still assessed separately under Rule 86.06, and each owner retains the notice and hearing rights the other condemnation rules provide, but the case itself proceeds as a single proceeding instead of a string of duplicate lawsuits.

This joinder rule reduces cost and delay for a project that needs to acquire many parcels at once, while the rest of Rule 86 still protects each individual owner's right to notice, to a commissioners' assessment, and to file exceptions to that assessment.