Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist. v. McNulty

• Decision Date: 14 March 1963
• Citation: 29 Cal.Rptr. 13,379 P.2d 493,59 Cal.2d 333
• Parties: , 379 P.2d 493 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Billy R. McNULTY et al., Defendants and Appellants. L. A. 27013.
• Court: California Supreme Court

Page 13

29 Cal.Rptr. 13

59 Cal.2d 333, 379 P.2d 493

LOS ANGELES COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Billy R. McNULTY et al., Defendants and Appellants.

L. A. 27013.

Supreme Court of California, In Bank.

March 14, 1963.

Francis H. O'Neill and Richard L. Huxtable, Los Angeles, for defendants and appellants.

Harold W. Kennedy, County Counsel, and David Bernard, Deputy County Counsel, for plaintiff and respondent.

GIBSON, Chief Justice.

Defendants in an eminent domain action appeal from a judgment on a jury verdict awarding them $12,900 for the taking of 2.62 acres by plaintiff district for the purpose of constructing a flood control channel. An additional sum of $5,000 awarded as severance damages was set off against an equal amount in special benefits found to accrue as a result of improvements made by the district.

Defendants owned 38.85 acres in the City of Santa Fe Springs which were zoned for industrial use but had not been developed for that purpose. The flood control channel, which was constructed prior to the trial under an immediate possession order, divides the land in such a manner that 7.31 acres are on the northeast side of the channel and 28.92 acres on the southwest side. It is 1,500 feet long and, including marginal areas, 72 feet wide.

The premises, including the improvements, were viewed by the jury.

Defendants' property and other land in the area had been drained by a natural watercourse prior to the construction of the channel by the district. In times of heavy rainfall 13 acres of defendants' land had been flooded, and there was a flood hazard to more than six additional acres. There was expert testimony that, in order to develop defendants' property to the highest and best use, it would be necessary to construct a drainage facility and that to obtain sufficient drainage a ditch 70 feet wide at the top and four feet deep, which would accommodate 450 cubia feet of water per second, would be required. Such a ditch would occupy approximately 2.55 acres of the 2.62 acres taken by the district. The construction of the channel by the district made it unnecessary for defendants to provide a ditch.

The district's evaluation witness stated that the land taken by the district in excess of that which defendants would have been required to use for a ditch was worth $20,000 per acre and that the land which defendants would have been required to use for a ditch was worth only $250 per acre. He testified that, since a ditch sufficient to drain defendants' land would require 2.55 acres, the $250-per-acre rate was applicable to 2.55 of the 2.62 acres taken by the district and the $20,000 rate was applicable to the remaining 0.07 acre and that the value of the land taken was $2,050.

Defendants offered to show by the testimony of an engineer that they could have provided adequate drainage by utilizing 0.9 acres less than the 2.55 acres which the district's witness testified would have been required. The testimony was rejected by the court on the ground that the witness did not have sufficient factual knowledge to give an informed opinion as to the dimensions of an adequate drainage ditch. The purpose of the testimony was to rebut the evidence that a ditch 70 feet in width, accommodating 450 cubic feet of water per second, would have been necessary to develop defendants' property if the flood control channel had not been built. Defendants' offer was to the effect that the witness would testify that he had designed a ditch of lesser width which would accommodate an equivalent quantity of water. The witness stated, however, that the area of a ditch sufficient to accommodate 450 cubic feet of water per second is determined by dividing that quantity by the velocity of the water and that he had 'assumed' a velocity of approximately three feet per second. He admitted that velocity in his proposed ditch would be affected by downstream conditions and that he had no knowledge of such conditions and had not taken them into account in designing his ditch.

The opinion of defendants' witness depended upon a velocity of three feet per second which he had assumed, and, according to his statement, validity of this assumption would be affected by the downstream conditions of which he had no knowledge. Defendants did not offer to show that a velocity of three feet per second could be obtained in the channel designed by their witness, and, in the absence of such a showing, his testimony would be entitled to little, if any, weight. It may be noted that the district's witness who stated that a 70-foot ditch was necessary had made an extensive investigation of downstream conditions. In the circumstances it does not appear that the rejection of the rebuttal evidence constituted prejudicial error.

The court instructed the jury that in determining the market value of the parcel condemned it is not proper to attribute a per-square-foot value to defendants' entire property and then apply the value to the parcel condemned unless each square foot of defendants' land has the same value and that, if the parcel condemned is different in quality from the rest of the land, it should be assigned a different value. There was a conflict in the evidence as to whether 2.55 acres of the 2.62 acres taken were worth as much per acre as the remainder of defendants' land, and the instruction correctly states the applicable principles of law. (People...