"x x x.
Eminent domain is the authority and right of the State, as sovereign, to take private property for public use upon observance of due process of law and payment of just compensation.44 The State’s power of eminent domain is limited by the constitutional mandate that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.45
Just compensation is the full and fair equivalent of the property sought to be expropriated.46 The general rule is that the just compensation to which the owner of the condemned property is entitled to is the market value.47 Market value is that sum of money which a person desirous but not compelled to buy, and an owner willing but not compelled to sell, would agree on as a price to be paid by the buyer and received by the seller. The general rule, however, is modified where only a part of a certain property is expropriated.48 In such a case, the owner is not restricted to compensation for the portion actually taken, he is also entitled to recover the consequential damage, if any, to the remaining part of the property.49
x x x."
