Gwathmey v. United States

• Citation: 215 F.2d 148
• Decision Date: 25 August 1954
• Docket Number: No. 14377.,14377.
• Parties: GWATHMEY et al. v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

215 F.2d 148 (1954)

GWATHMEY et al. v. UNITED STATES.

No. 14377.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

August 25, 1954.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

R. F. Maguire, J. R. Wells, J. R. Wells, Jr., of Maguire, Voorhis & Wells, Orlando, Fla., for all appellants except Louis Fischer.

Noah B. Butt, Wm. G. Akridge, Cocoa, Fla., for appellant Fischer.

Harold S. Harrison, Roger P. Marquis, Attys. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Perry W. Morton, James M. McInerney, Asst. Attys. Gen., William D. Jones, Jr., Special Asst. to Atty. Gen., Allen L. Poucher, Asst. U. S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., Reginald W. Barnes, Atty. Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., for appellee.

Before STRUM and RIVES, Circuit Judges, and DAWKINS, District Judge.

DAWKINS, District Judge.

Appellants¹ have appealed from the judgments in two consolidated condemnation suits. The group appellants list 76 alleged errors which they reduce into 14 questions. Fischer, the individual appellant, raised many of the same questions and four additional errors. But the principal issue, and the main problem we deem it necessary to discuss, was raised by all appellants: Did the trial judge exercise a proper discretion first, in consolidating the two suits, and second, in refusing appellants' requests for separate trials and allowing the case to be presented before one jury which retired for deliberation only after all evidence of value had been entered on all property condemned?

On April 15, 1950, at the request of the Secretary of the Air Force, the United States filed suit to condemn property in the Cape Canaveral area on the eastern coast of Florida for military use. It described the area sought by section, township and range and listed separately the parties who claimed the land "in whole or in part". The right to amend was reserved for the bringing in of additional parties if necessary. The record is not clear but it appears the original complaint did not identify the defendants with any specific tracts or parts of the property. The complaint did not inform the owners clearly of the exact tracts to be taken and their descriptions until eight amendments had been filed, the last on March 30, 1951. Not until then was the whole property completely broken down into the tracts used in the trial.

In the meantime, on June 2, 1950, a second suit had been filed to condemn an additional area, the need for which had been determined. Some of the same defendants in the first suit were found to be owners of tracts or parts thereof covered by the second; but the numbers and ownerships were not clearly distinguished in either complaint. It was assumed by the witnesses and the trial court that some 12,000 acres were involved.

The property sought was a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, measuring some four and one-half miles at its widest point, and about seven miles from north to south, having an ocean frontage estimated by a government witness as 50,000 feet. The lands are situated between the Banana River and the Atlantic Ocean, and the area as a whole was sparsely populated at the time of taking, although one of the appellants (Port Realty Company) had elaborate plans partially executed for the development of a city. Several sub-divisions had been opened years before during the boom which preceded the Great Depression, but some of these had reverted to the natural state. There were piers and docks along parts of the beach, and appellant Fischer, among others, headquartered commercial and sport fishing operations there. He contended that his pier was located in the heart of the Canaveral shrimping grounds, and supported this with further proof that the area was unique in this respect and had exceptional possibilities for development.

The Government, in the two suits, had broken the area down into 933 separate tracts, numbered consecutively. By the time preliminary pleadings and orders were finished it appeared that 236 separate tracts would be contested as to value. A pre-trial conference was then had to determine the contested facts and method for conducting the trial, mainly as to values, which consumed two full days, September 6 and 7, 1951. The discussions at the conference centered around a previously prepared plan submitted by counsel for the Government. It went into great detail, including anticipated rulings on the admissibility of evidence, and sought to define precise limitations for the conduct of the trial. There was much discussion of these proposals, particularly as to method of conducting the trial. Several counsel for landowners argued strenuously against one massive trial, in which the jury would make no decision until completion of all the evidence. Several alternative methods for breaking the trial down into smaller segments were suggested, it being contended that otherwise the landowners would be deprived of due process if the jury were given the impossible task proposed by the Government.

Notwithstanding these arguments, the court consolidated the two cases and ordered one trial of these hundreds of claims before a single jury. The ruling to this effect is paragraph 28 of the pretrial order.²

Before beginning the trial, the jury was taken to the scene and shown the property involved in such detail as was possible in the time consumed. However, when the first suit was filed, the Government was given possession, and the owners of improvements, such as wharves and other accessories, ceased to keep them in good repair. By the time the jury had been selected and was taken to view the property, more than a year had elapsed and the claimants contended there had been substantial deterioration due to the salt and other elements in the wind and water. Substantial proof to support these claims was offered, but some of it was ruled out. These rulings form the basis of errors strongly urged.

As stated earlier, the trial opened with 236 tracts contested, the owners of which were represented by 12 separate attorneys or law firms. Taking of evidence on issue of value alone consumed some seven weeks, producing a record of 6,248 pages in 12 volumes. The jurors were allowed to take notes as the trial progressed, and a large map of the whole area was displayed before them. At the close of the evidence, argument of all counsel and instructions to the jury, they were handed forms for their verdict prepared in detail, with blanks left for inserting the awards to each claimant found by the jury. In each of the two cases, the jury rendered a verdict on the value of the whole area and then broke the total down into separate awards to each landowner by tracts.

It is stated by the group appellants, and not disputed by the Government, that on their 50 separate tracts, the combined total of the lowest values by landowner appraisers was $1,702,118.25; while the combined total of the highest values on the same tracts by Government appraisers was $297,317; and the total verdict on the 50 tracts was $369,132, some $71,000 more than the Government's top estimate.

Appellants, of course, do not ask that we review the findings of values by the jury as such, simply pointing to the great disparity in the figures; but with considerable feeling they urge that the manner in which these cases were tried amounted to a denial of due process of law.

It is not necessary to emphasize the reasons behind the Constitutional provisions for trial by jury or the requirement that the Government must pay "just compensation" to owners when their property is taken for public use. Jury trials were instituted long before the courts were confronted with modern conditions affecting the value of property. However, the reasons for having a jury now in such proceedings are the same, i. e., obtaining the composite judgment of twelve men on the relevant facts. To insure impartial judgment the trial should be conducted in a manner that will enable the jury to understand and comprehend those facts, not alone as to the overall value of a large body of land, such as was involved here, but as to the approximate worth fairly determined of each owner's tract or tracts, including all elements which reasonably contribute to its current market value.

A jury is usually drawn from the body of qualified persons residing in the division of the court in which the trial is held. This includes persons of all walks of life, merchants, farmers, artisans, laborers and all others who, in the judgment of the jury commission, reasonably possess the qualifications required to discharge their important duties. In a case like the present one, the sole question is the fair value of property in many different situations, affected by varying conditions according to its location in the whole area taken, such as improvements, nearness to roads, highways, streams, waterfronts, transportation and numerous other elements which may affect market value. Market value, of course, means what one wanting to buy, but not compelled to do so, is willing to pay, with the corresponding price which the owner who does not have to sell will take for his property. Undoubtedly the law permits including in a single expropriation proceeding several separate properties and owners constituting a single area necessary for the public purpose intended. However, this does not warrant any diminution in the duty to afford each of such individuals fair and reasonable opportunity to put before the jury, or other agency charged with the determination of values, in understandable form, all material facts which experience and common-sense teaches make up those values. Because of the complex and variable nature of such factors in modern conditions, the law very wisely allows the trial judge a broad discretion as to methods which shall be used in accomplishing the best results, and an appellate court should not insist upon substituting its own judgment by selecting something else, merely for the reason it seems a better choice. Much more is...