City of Jackson v. Landrum, 38706
| Decision Date | 16 March 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 38706,38706 |
| Citation | 217 Miss. 10,63 So.2d 391 |
| Parties | CITY OF JACKSON v. LANDRUM. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
E. W. Stennett, Jackson, for appellant.
Landrum & Busby, Jackson, Roger C. Landrum, Columbus, for appellee.
This is a condemnation proceeding by the municipality of Jackson, Mississippi, to obtain title to the north half of Lot 3, Square 9D, South Jackson, fronting on the west side of South Congress Street 40.35 feet and extending west a depth of 160.5 feet, and which is also known as No. 317 South Congress Street. The jury assessed the value of the lot and improvements thereon at $22,000. The City, on this appeal, says the verdict was so excessive as to the value that it is our duty to either order a remittitur here or reverse and remand the case for assessment of value by another jury. Excessive value vel non is the only question involved on this appeal.
On that question, it is shown, without dispute, that appellee, on October 12, 1950, after a trip to New Orleans, entered into a contract with Mr. George Miller, the owner, to purchase the property for the sum of $14,000. At the time the contract of sale and purchase was made appellee paid $500, and he agreed to, and did, pay $2,352 when the deed should be and was executed January 9, 1951, making a total cash payment of $2,852, of which $52 was part of the cost of legal services for title work and abstract of the property. He agreed to, and he did, on January 9, 1951, execute to Miller five promissory notes, one payable each year, bearing four percent interest per annum, and he also executed to Miller a trust deed on the purchased property to secure payment of these notes. The papers included no pre-payment rights and appellee testified he was bound to, and would, pay the full interest even though the property should be taken by condemnation.
The condemned property is located immediately west and across South Congress Street from the County Courthouse. It is also about two and a half blocks south of Capitol Street, which is the main street in said municipality. It is shown by all of the witnesses that construction of certain valuable buildings, very near the condemned property, were in contemplation, and some had actually been started, at the time of appellee's purchase, and some had actually been constructed when the case was tried in the county court in March 1951.
Condemnor introduced three witnesses, aside from appellee as an adverse witness. These three were engaged in the real estate business in Jackson. The first one introduced never did specifically state his estimate of the value of the property, although we think, and the jury could have found, that the fair import of his value was $14,000, the price appellee agreed to pay for the property. He handled the sale and purchase agreement between Miller and appellee. He admitted, however, that the property might be worth more at the time of institution of the condemnation proceedings than at the time Landrum made his contract of purchase--this largely because certain buildings, such as the County Welfare Building and Mississippi Title Insurance Company Building, had been constructed next to or close by the condemned property since the Landrum contract was executed.
The next witness for the City estimated the value of the property at $14,000. He admitted, however, that he did not know of certain recent real estate transfers in the neighborhood of this property at prices justifying, by comparison, a much greater value than his estimate of $14,000.
The purport of the testimony of the third witness for the City was about the same as that of the second just stated.
Appellee introduced six witnesses besides himself. Three of these were lawyers in the City of Jackson. They were familiar with property values but were not engaged in the real estate business. Two of them said the property in question was desirably located, being just across the street from the County...
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Mississippi State Highway Com'n v. Franklin County Timber Co., Inc., 55471
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