Martinson v. Iowa State Highway Commission

• Decision Date: 06 April 1965
• Docket Number: No. 51604,51604
• Citation: 257 Iowa 687,134 N.W.2d 340
• Parties: Robert C. MARTINSON and Evelyn L. Martinson, Appellants, v. IOWA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 340

134 N.W.2d 340

257 Iowa 687

Robert C. MARTINSON and Evelyn L. Martinson, Appellants, v. IOWA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION, Appellee.

No. 51604.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

April 6, 1965.

Brierly, McCall & Girdner, Newton, for appellants.

Lawrence F. Scalise, Atty. Gen., Raymond T. Walton, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen. and Counsel to Iowa State Highway Commission, James E. Thomson, State Counsel, Iowa State Highway Commission, and Campbell, Campbell & Caldwell, Newton, for appellee.

STUART, Justice.

Defendant, to by-pass Newton with State Highway 14, condemned about 11 acres of land out of plaintiffs' farm. The condemned strip contained a pond and divided the farm into a 51 acre tract of pasture and meadowland and a 21 acre tract on which all improvements were located. The jury returned a verdict of $14,250 for plaintiffs who have appealed, assigning error in the admission of certain evidence. We affirm the trial court.

I. Plaintiffs first assign error in connection with the testimony of Tom Hill, a Newton realtor and one of defendant's valuation witnesses. In his opinion, the fair market value immediately before condemnation was $54,000. He valued the land and improvements separately and 'rounded off' the total to arrive at his valuation.

The direct examination indicated he arrived at the fair market value after condemnation by placing a monetary value on (1) land actually taken, (2) the farm pond, (3) loss in building value because of the taking, (4) difference in land value because of the severance and (5) additional fencing expenses. The total of these items was deducted from the before value to arrive at after value. A motion to strike the testimony was made. The trial court permitted the evidence of before value to stand and sustained the motion as to the value after condemnation. We believe both rulings were correct.

The correct measure of damages in a partial taking is, of course, the difference in the fair market value of the subject property immediately before and immediately after condemnation. Hall v. City of West Des Moines, 245 Iowa 458, 62 N.W.2d 734; Randell v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 214 Iowa 1, 241 N.W. 685; Hoeft v. State of Iowa, 221 Iowa 694, 696, 266 N.W. 571, 104 A.L.R. 1008.

The approaches to market value before condemnation used by Mr. Hill, are those generally used by appraisers in attempting to arrive at fair market value. In fact, Mr. Shepard, witness for plaintiff used the same approaches, along with one other, in arriving at his opinion of fair market value. A witness may support his valuation by relating matters which affected his judgment. The admissibility of collateral facts in support of estimates of value is a matter which must be largely left to the discretion of the presiding judge. Ranck v. City of Cedar Rapids, 134 Iowa 563, 570, 111 N.W. 1027; Harmsen v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 251 Iowa 1351, 1354, 105 N.W.2d 660, 662; Trachta v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 249 Iowa 374, 380, 86 N.W.2d 849, 853.

In the Ranck case witnesses were permitted to value the land as a vacant lot and to value the improvements located on it separately. We said 'It seems fairly well established that proof of such facts is admissible--not as affording a measure of recovery, but as tending to disclose the real character and conditions of the property--and support the estimates of value given by the witnesses.'

In Randell v. Highway Commission, supra, 214 Iowa p. 10, 241 N.W. 685, many cases are cited in which the court permitted evidence of value of specific improvements on the land. There was no error in admitting Mr. Hill's testimony on the value before condemnation.

Mr. Hill should have determined the fair market value after condemnation in the same manner. In the testimony which was stricken, however, he did not do so. Specific values were assigned to each element of damage and the total was subtracted from the before value to arrive at after value. He misconceived the ultimate fact to be determined. We do not use the estimates of the losses to arrive at after value, but use after value to determine the actual loss. If we were to approve of the method used by Mr. Hill, there would be no occasion to determine after value. The total of the specified amounts would be the proof of damages. This is not and never has been the law in Iowa. A condemnee is damaged to the extent his property is diminished in value by the condemnation. A total of values assigned to the various elements of damages may or may not reflect this diminished value accurately.

This specific question does not seem to have been directly presented to this court. However, in Hoeft v. State of Iowa, 221 Iowa 694, 696, 266 N.W. 571, 573, it was contended that it was improper to show the value of separate tracts of land. We said: 'This contention is based upon the theory that the cost of separate items of injury to the property cannot be offered in evidence in determining the owner's damage, because the measure of damages is the difference between the value of land immediately before the condemnation and immediately thereafter. It is no doubt true that it is the law that separate items of damage to the property cannot be shown to determine the owner's damage.' (Citing cases)

This is analogous to the cases in which it has been sought to show the amount of additional expenses claimed to be necessary because of the condemnation. In Trachta v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 249 Iowa 374, 379, 86 N.W.2d 849, 853, the question was the cost of a new corral. We said: 'By reason and by precedent we recognize the general rule that the various detriments may be shown in such matters, but estimates of costs necessary to offset the detriment for erecting new structures such as buildings, fences, walls, and drain tile cannot be shown.'

Similar language is found in Harmsen v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 251 Iowa 1351, 1353, 105 N.W.2d 660 (cost of flood gate); Randell v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 214 Iowa 1, 16, 241 N.W. 685 (hypothetical fence); Dean v. State of Iowa, 211 Iowa 143, 233 N.W. 36 (fencing). We hold the trial court correctly struck Mr. Hill's testimony of after valuation under the state of the record at that time.

This brings us to plaintiffs' real complaint. Upon further examination Mr. Hill, using a proper basis, testified the fair market value immediately after condemnation was $43,200. Plaintiffs claim: 'It is prejudicial and improper to permit the witness to later retract his testimony and state that the same figures that had been used previously were still the figures he would use as the value after the condemnation but that such valuation was arrived at by proper valuation rather than the use of an improper measure of damage.'

Frequently it is necessary for a witness to correct, alter or change his testimony. Such action affects his credibility, which is a matter for the jury. In this case, it is for it to determine whether the similarity in the after values arrived at in two different ways, one proper and one improper, is contrived or coincidental.

Plaintiffs' contention is quite similar to one made by defendant in Nelson v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 253 Iowa 1248, 1253, 115 N.W.2d 695, 697. There, one of plaintiffs' valuation witnesses testified he based the fair market value on 'what it is worth to Mr. Nelson'. Later he based the same valuation on 'the value a willing seller would take and a willing buyer would give' We said: 'In its motion for a new trial defendant urged error in allowing this testimony to be considered after the witness testified to an improper measure of damage. * * *

'The record does not bear out the complaint lodged against the witness's value testimony. When he finally left the stand he had answered questions containing a proper measure of damage. Hamer v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 250 Iowa 1228, 98 N.W.2d 746; and Stortenbecker v. Iowa Power and Light Company, 250 Iowa 1073, 1080, 1081, 96 N.W.2d 468, 472. Some doubt had been cast upon his testimony, but this was a question of weight to be given it by the jury, and not a question of admissibility for the court.'

In Comstock v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 254 Iowa 1301, 1307, 121 N.W.2d give'. We said: 'In its motion for a new witnesses used the unacceptable unit rule. This was denied. We permitted the evidence to stand in spite of the 'rather startling similarity between the conclusions of the witnesses and computations under the unit rule'.

The trial court did not err in admitting this testimony of witness Hill on value after condemnation.

II. Plaintiffs claim defendant did not lay a sufficient foundation for its value witnesses, Mollison and Wright, to express opinions of the fair market value of the property immediately before and after condemnation on July 18, 1963. Wright viewed the property in January, 1963...