Fritz v. Iowa State Highway Commission
| Decision Date | 18 October 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 60920,60920 |
| Citation | 270 N.W.2d 835 |
| Parties | Glen D. FRITZ, Appellee, v. IOWA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION, Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Richard C. Turner, Atty. Gen. and Asher E. Schroeder and Robert W. Goodwin, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellant.
Steven S. Hoth of Hirsch, Link, Adams, Hoth & Krekel, Burlington, for appellee.
Considered en banc.
This is an appeal in an eminent domain proceeding by the defendant Iowa State Highway Commission (now Iowa State Department of Transportation) from a jury verdict rendered in favor of plaintiff in an appeal from a condemnation award. The defendant's postverdict motion for a new trial was overruled and defendant appeals. We affirm.
Plaintiff, Glen D. Fritz, was the owner of a leasehold interest in a farm premises in Des Moines County, the fee title to which was held by his parents, Raymond and Elsie Fritz. In a separate proceeding, the owners of the fee were compensated for their ownership interest in the parcel condemned. Subsequent to the proceeding, Elsie Fritz died and Raymond survived and was living at the date of the trial of the within case.
On February 1, 1974, in accord with the provisions of §§ 472.18 and 472.19, The Code, the plaintiff filed his notice of appeal to the district court from a $2,000 award by the condemnation commission for his leasehold interest in the property condemned. Plaintiff's petition alleged that the fair and reasonable market value of his leasehold interest in the land had been decreased by the taking and prayed initially for judgment against the defendant in the amount of $125,000. The prayer of his petition was subsequently amended to request a judgment of $119,248. Included in the items of damage claimed by the plaintiff was the taking of the strip of property condemned for roadway purposes; damage through rendering obsolescent milking equipment used in conjunction with the plaintiff's dairy operation; damage by rendering obsolescent certain farming equipment owned by plaintiff; and rendering obsolescent plaintiff's entire leasehold interest, causing it to be inoperative for its highest and best use, as a dairy farm. Following trial to a jury, a verdict in the amount of $48,526 was returned, representing the difference between the fair and reasonable market value of plaintiff's leasehold interest before and after the condemnation taking. A second form of verdict submitted to the jury with respect to the reduction in fair market value of plaintiff's personal property was not returned by the jury.
The proceedings involved the condemnation of a tract of 6.3 acres in fee out of the entire parcel owned by Raymond Fritz in which plaintiff claimed a leasehold interest of 91.4 acres in toto. A temporary easement was also condemned over an additional tract of 14.7 acres from which the defendant proposed to take, and later did take, materials for the construction of the highway. The plaintiff's pretrial motion in limine to restrict the highway commission from informing the jury of the amount the owner of the fee, Raymond Fritz, had been compensated in a separate trial for his interest was sustained.
The defendant sought by motion in limine to prohibit any testimony or evidence of alleged reduction in value of plaintiff's personal property which, defendant alleged, was readily moveable, was not required to be used exclusively upon the 91.4 acre parcel, and was not the type of property encompassed by § 472.14, The Code, which concerns compensation for personal property damaged or reduced in value by eminent domain proceedings. Defendant's motion in limine was overruled and the court permitted the introduction of testimony, over objection, of the alleged reduction of the fair market value of such personal property. Defendant's motion for a directed verdict on the issue of damage to personal property on the grounds that plaintiff's own witnesses admitted on cross-examination that the fair market value of the personal property had not been decreased in value generally, but only in value to the plaintiff himself, was overruled and, over objection, the issue of damage to the personal property of the defendant was submitted to the jury.
The trial court also ruled against certain allegations of defendant's motion in limine to prohibit any evidence that plaintiff's oral farm tenancy would extend beyond March 1, 1975, in view of §§ 562.5, 562.6 and 562.7, The Code, and the statute of frauds § 622.32. By way of resistance to defendant's motion in limine in these respects, plaintiff established that he was the sole beneficiary of his father's will, expected as an only child pursuant to his father's promise to inherit the entire parcel of land involved and was also party to an oral covenant with his father by which his tenancy would be annually renewed until his father's death. The life expectancy of Raymond Fritz, plaintiff's father, was established as being 5.19 years as of January 8, 1974. The trial court instructed the jury, over objection, that it could consider plaintiff as having a tenancy for a term of 5.19 years, and overruled defendant's requested instruction to the effect that the oral farm tenancy would expire March 1, 1975.
The defendant's motion in limine, by which it sought to limit testimony or evidence of specific costs to offset any burden or detriment caused by the condemnation, was overruled and, over objection, the court permitted testimony to be adduced of the specific costs of installing a liquid manure disposal system on the property, there being conflicting testimony in the record as to whether the condemnation proceedings necessitated plaintiff's purchase of such a system. The court also overruled that portion of defendant's motion in limine which sought to prohibit testimony or evidence of the reduction in value of the property to plaintiff personally.
After the verdict of the jury was returned, the defendant secured affidavits from three of the eleven jurors who concurred in the verdict, stating that the jury considered the plaintiff to be the owner of the parcel and not the mere tenant, and that the award included compensation for personal property and costs to offset the detriment caused by the condemnation. The defendant's motion for a new trial incorporated the affidavits of the jurors above mentioned, and asserted the trial court erred in not permitting the jury to be advised of the award made in compensation to the owner of the fee and by improperly permitting the jury to consider the oral farm tenancy of the defendant to extend for a period of 5.19 years, resulting in an excessive award to the plaintiff. The defendant further asserted in its motion for new trial that the court erred in permitting the jury to consider alleged reduction in fair market value of plaintiff's personal property which was moveable and was not required to be used exclusively upon the premises. The plaintiff contravened defendant's motion for new trial and obtained affidavits from the foreman of the jury and two other jurors in which they stated the verdict was solely to reflect the decrease in value of plaintiff's leasehold interest.
In overruling defendant's motion for new trial, the trial court concluded that the affidavits of the jurors attached to the defendant's motion concerned matters which were inherent in the verdict of the jury and that the verdict could not be impeached by the affidavits submitted. The court further found the expenditure of money, time and effort by the plaintiff took the case out of the operation of the statute of frauds and that the exceptions contained in § 622.33, The Code, were applicable to the facts of this case. The court further found the highway commission did not have standing to raise the issue of the statute of frauds since it was not a party to the transaction which created the leasehold interest, and since both parties to the oral leasehold agreement admitted its terms.
The following issues are presented for review:
(1) Did the trial court err in permitting testimony relative to the plaintiff's oral farm tenancy and in instructing the jury that the tenancy had an unexpired term of 5.19 years to run from the date of the condemnation, based on the life expectancy of plaintiff's father; or did the provisions of §§ 562.5 and 562.6, The Code, require a finding that the farm tenancy terminated on March 1, 1975?
(2) Did the trial court err in permitting testimony and instructing the jury that it could consider the reduction in the fair market value of plaintiff's personal property used in connection with the condemned land under § 472.14, The Code?
(3) Did the trial court err in overruling defendant's motion in limine to prohibit plaintiff's introduction of evidence of the reduction in value of the property to himself, rather than the decrease in the fair market value of the property?
(4) Did the trial court err in overruling the defendant's motion in limine by which it sought to prohibit plaintiff from presenting evidence of specific costs of equipment to offset the detriment or burden caused by the condemnation?
(5) Did trial court err in sustaining plaintiff's motion in limine and thereby prohibiting defendant from advising the jury of the amount that the owner of the fee title of the parcel condemned had been previously compensated in separate proceedings?
(6) Did trial court err in overruling defendant's motion for a new trial in light of the fact that three of the eleven jurors signing the verdict executed affidavits that the jury considered plaintiff the owner of the land involved and not a tenant with an oral leasehold agreement; and that the jury included damages for reduction in value of plaintiff's personal property and costs to offset the burden of the condemnation in the award for the reduction in fair market value of the plaintiff's tenancy interest?
I. In the first issue stated for review, we are concerned with the nature and character of the...
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