Smaha v. State Highway Dept.
| Decision Date | 24 June 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 42098,No. 2,42098,2 |
| Parties | J. E. SMAHA et al. v. STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Melton, McKenna & House, Andrew W. McKenna, Macon, for appellants.
Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Richard L. Chambers, Asst. Atty. Gen., Horace E. Campbell, Jr., Deputy Asst. Atty. Gen., Atlanta, Harris, Russell & Watkins, T. Reese Watkins, Macon, for appellee.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
1. On the appeal from the award of the special master in a condemnation proceeding involving the taking of a tract of vacant land for interstate highway purposes, the two witnesses for the condemnor appraised the market value of the land taken at $12,560 and $15,169.95 respectively, while those for the condemnee assessed it § value at $42,000 and $47,195.15. The jury found the market value to be $12,000 plus consequential damages. There was testimony as to the size and shape of the tract of land fronting on Riverside Drive in Bibb County, and considerable evidence as to its contour, which varied from grade level to 25 feet below grade level, and as to the extent of flooding in wet weather. Both aerial and ground level views of the property were in evidence. Since the jury had before it the relevant and pertinent facts upon which an estimate of value must be made, and since it is not absolutely bound to accept as correct the opinions or estimates of the witnesses (Baker v. Richmond City Mill Works, 105 Ga.225, 31 S.E. 426), but may arrive at a different figure, even though such figure is somewhat higher or lower than that to which annoy witness has testified, Hoard v. Wiley, 113 Ga.App., 328, 147 S.E.2d 782 provided it is within the range of all of the evidence from which value may be determined, it follows that the fact that the figure set by the jury as the value of the land taken was $560 below the lowest estimate given by any expert witness is not cause for reversal.
2. Evidence of the value of similar nearby property as shown by sales at or about the time of the taking of the land at issue is admissible to throw light on the value of the property being condemned, and whether or no such other property is sufficiently similar in location, use and potential to make the information relevant is usually within the sound discretion of the trial judge. West v. Fulton County, 95 Ga.App. 320, 97 S.E.2d 785. An exception to this rule is that it is not competent to prove what the condemnor has paid or offered for similar property 'upon the consideration that in such transactions neither party is free from conpulsion.' Georgia Power Co. v. Brooks, 207 Ga. 406, 410, 62 S.E.2d 183, 186. The trial court, apparently applying this latter rule, excluded certain testimony of Leggett, an appraiser for the condemnor, who on cross examination stated that he had appraised six other pieces of property for the same project. Two of these involved vacant land like that being condemned and on the same side of the road, one immediately adjacent to the Smaha property and one 1,000 feet from it. The acreage and road frontage of these tracts were...
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Department of Transp. v. Driggers, 57424
...$1,000 and $1,200 per acre. Such evidence may be considered in establishing value of the property being condemned. Smaha v. State Hwy. Dept., 114 Ga.App. 60(2), 150 S.E.2d 327. The highest value placed upon the condemnee's land was $750 per acre. There was evidence of the specific amount of......
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Development Corp. of Georgia v. Berndt
...City Mill Works, 105 Ga. 225(1), 31 S.E. 426; Reserve Life Ins. Co. v. Gay, 214 Ga. 2, 3, 102 S.E.2d 492; Smaha v. State Highway Department, 114 Ga.App. 60(1), 150 S.E.2d 327. There was ample evidence in the record from which the jury could have arrived at the verdict of But the majority op......
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City of Atlanta v. Brookins
...16 (Code Ann. § 24-3616), the condemnees' motion to dismiss the appeal is denied. 2. Based upon the decisions of Smaha v. State Hwy. Dept., 114 Ga.App. 60(2), 150 S.E.2d 327, and Ga. Power Co. v. Brooks, 207 Ga. 406, 410, 62 S.E.2d 183, during the examination of a witness who was testifying......
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Cross-examination of the Expert: Eminent Domain Cases
...Cross-examination about appraisals of other similar properties has been deemed to be proper (Smaha v. State Highway Department (Ga. 1966) 150 S.E.2d 327). Before the witness can be asked to give the values which he has put on the surrounding properties, it must be shown that these propertie......