Property Owner v. Municipality: Expropriation Time Limits and Project Abandonment

A property owner sued a municipality, seeking annulment of an order expropriating land for a public road and damages, based on the municipality's failure to commence the expropriation proceedings within the legally stipulated period following the declaration of public utility, and further arguing that the expropriation was unnecessary because the road had not been opened. The court rejected the appeal, reasoning that the declaration of public utility, which creates a definitive right to expropriate, is not automatically extinguished by the mere passage of time without the expropriation order being made, and that the applicant had not demonstrated any definitive abandonment of the project by the public authority, meaning the right to proceed with the expropriation remained valid.