Section 42A-1-29 - Property taken or damaged without compensation or condemnation proceedings; right of action by condemneeA. A person authorized to exercise the right of eminent domain who has taken or damaged or who may take or damage any property for public use without making just compensation or without instituting and prosecuting to final judgment in a court of competent jurisdiction any proceeding for condemnation is liable to the condemnee, or any subsequent grantee thereof, for the value thereof or the damage thereto at the time the property is or was taken or damaged, with ten percent per year interest, to the date such just compensation is made, in an action to be brought under and governed by the Rules of Civil Procedure for the District Courts of this state. Actions under this section shall be brought in the county where the land or any portion thereof is located. B. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A of this section or any other provision of law regarding compensation for damage in the situation described in that subsection: (1) if the person authorized had taken or been granted for public use, pursuant to a final judgment, an order of immediate possession or private agreement, any property; (2) the property subsequently taken or damaged was contiguous to the property taken or granted; and (3) the person takes or damages property contiguous to property previously taken or granted from the condemnee or grantor without making just compensation or without instituting and prosecuting to final judgment in a court of competent jurisdiction any proceeding for condemnation; the condemnee or grantor shall receive compensation for the land taken or damaged at the greater of fair market value or a unit rate of five times that of the compensation or consideration he received for the land taken; provided that if the width of the property taken or damaged is not equal to the width originally taken or damaged, compensation required pursuant to this subsection shall be increased or reduced ratably in accordance with the relationship of the respective widths. C. Any amounts paid under Subsection B of this section shall be deemed just compensation. 1978 Comp., § 42A-1-29, enacted by Laws 1981, ch. 125, § 25; 1983, ch. 131, § 1.