Socony Vacuum Oil Co. v. State

• Decision Date: 05 September 1969
• Docket Number: No. 53412,53412
• Citation: 170 N.W.2d 378
• Parties: SOCONY VACUUM OIL COMPANY, a/k/a Mobil Oil Co., Appellee, v. STATE of Iowa, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 378

170 N.W.2d 378

SOCONY VACUUM OIL COMPANY, a/k/a Mobil Oil Co., Appellee, v. STATE of Iowa, Appellant.

No. 53412.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Sept. 5, 1969.

Raymond Rosenberg, Des Moines, for appellant.

Ahlers, Cooney, Dorweiler, Allbee & Haynie, Des Moines, for appellee.

BECKER, Justice.

This is an appeal by the State following a condemnation award for property appropriated by the State for use as a part of the Capitol Grounds Extension Project. The district court jury returned its verdict on March 29, 1968. Defendant State's motion for new trial was overruled and the State appealed to this court.

In such cases no judgment except for costs is entered. See section 472.23, Code of Iowa.

The Capitol Planning Commission is an agency of the State provided for in chapter 18A, Code of Iowa.

Chapter 28, Laws of the 60th General Assembly in 1963 made an appropriation to the Capitol Planning Commission and provided for research and report on future expansion and development to be submitted to the 61st General Assembly.

Chapter 481 appearing in the published Acts of the 61st General Assembly and entitled a Joint Resolution by the General Assembly, accepts and adopts the report as the master plan for future development of the State Capitol Grounds of the State of Iowa.

Chapter 48i, Acts of the 61st General Assembly is a Joint Resolution approved May 6, 1965. It empowers and directs the State Executive Council to proceed to acquire by gift, purchase, condemnation or otherwise certain specifically described property. Item VI, section 4 of this resolution lists Lots 1 through 12, Subdivision of Block 4, Allen, Polk and Hubbell's Replat as a part of the property to be acquired.

The property herein involved is described in plaintiff's petition as an irregular piece south of and adjacent to lots 3, 4, 5 and 6, block 4, in B. F. Allen, J. S. Polk and F. M. Hubbell's Replatting, and states that the defendant desires condemnation of the real estate for the purpose of improving and expanding the State Capitol and Ground facilities; that a condemnation commission assessed the damages from such condemnation and that plaintiff has appealed; that defendant has or will in the very near future enter upon and take possession of the land.

From the description in plaintiff's petition it is difficult to determine that the property sought to be appropriated is within the authorization by the legislature. A tract south of and adjacent to specifically described property is not necessarily included within the authorization. However, plaintiff's allegations were admitted in defendant's answers (except for the extent of plaintiff's damage) and the case was tried on the supposition that the property had been appropriated by the State. It also appears that following the award by the sheriff's jury and before trial in district court there was an application and order for partial payment to plaintiff and the deposit of further funds with the Sheriff of Polk County.

The case having been tried on the premise that the property had been appropriated by the State and the authority not having been challenged this question is moot and we proceed from the same premise.

The property involved is located on the northwest corner of the intersection of E. 14th Street and East Court Avenue and is southeast of the capitol building on Des Moines.

Three witnesses testified for plaintiff and two for defendant. Many exhibits were offered and received. Witnesses called by plaintiff to establish the value of the property appropriated included Charles Kensinger, employed by the plaintiff as a district real estate representative and experienced in his field, and Murray Work, an independent, experienced and qualified real estate broker and appraiser.

All of the witnesses for plaintiff and defendant who testified as to the value of the property used the same three methods to arrive at their opinion as to value. One method is called cost approach, one is the income approach and the other the market or comparable approach to value. The witnesses did not give the same weight to each approach, but all considered comparable sales. In connection with the testimony the exhibits consisting of photographic but certified copies of deeds of record in Polk County were offered and received.

One property referred to by Mr. Kensinger and Mr. Work and used as a comparable was sold and conveyed by warranty deed by Texaco Inc. to the State of Iowa. It was formerly used as a Texaco service station. It is described as lots 15 and 16 in block 23 (except for a small triangular exception) in Stewart's addition in Des Moines and is located on the southwest corner of East 14th Street and Grand Avenue. This property is identified as a part of the property appropriated by the State and the description in the deed of conveyance is within the authorization of chapter 482, referred to supra, which in Division I of section 1 refers to lots 1 through 28, inclusive, block 23, Stewart's Addition. The description of the property appears in the deed offered and received in evidence as plaintiff's exhibit 10. There was testimony as to the area and the price per square foot.

Other properties referred to in the testimony and described in the exhibits cover property not within the perimeter of the Capitol Extension Grounds referred to in the joint resolution of the legislature. Several are near by, one being on the northwest corner of Des Moines Street and East 14th Street purchased by Continental Oil Company and one being on the northeast corner of Grand Avenue and East 14th Street across the street from the property described in the preceding paragraph. This property was purchased by Texaco Inc., the same company as the grantor in the deed to the State.

I. Section 622.58 Code of Iowa provides:

'Proceedings of legislature. The proceedings of the legislature of this or any other state of the Union, or of the United States, or of any foreign government, are proved by the journals of those bodies, respectively, or of either branch thereof, and either by copies officially certified by the clerk of the house in which the proceeding was had, or by a copy purporting to have been printed by its order.'

Appellee argues with vigor that there was no offer in evidence of any official proceedings and that there is no showing in the record that the sales offered as comparables were under threat of condemnation. We dispose of this matter first.

The property to be acquired for the project is described in the joint resolution of the legislature referred to supra. Although we find no direct Iowa authority on the question we conclude that we should take judicial notice of a joint resolution. The resolution was published as a part of the official acts of the legislature. It was the authority under which the executive council acted.

Judicial notice is taken of departmental rules and regulations adopted pursuant to statutory authority. State ex rel. Bierring v. Swearingen, 237 Iowa 1031, 1041, 22 N.W.2d 809, (special concurring opinion in which a majority of the court joined); Kraetsch v. Stull, 238 Iowa 944, 952, 29 N.W.2d 341.

Joint resolutions of the legislature under which the executive council acts are in the same category and are subject to judicial notice by this court. We adopt the rule found in 29 Am.Jur.2d, Evidence, § 29, page 65: 'Upon the theory that legislative journals are public records, since they are printed in pamphlet form and published and distributed, it has been held that the courts may take judicial notice of legislative proceedings as recorded therein to the same extent that they take judicial notice of statutes of the legislative body.' See also, State ex rel. Kornmann v. Larson, 81 S.D. 540, 138 N.W.2d 1, 5; Medlock v. Schmidt, 29 Wis.2d 114, 138 N.W.2d 248, 252; City of Grand Island v. Ehlers, 180 Neb. 331, 142 N.W.2d 770, 775; Cf. Severs v. Abramson, 255 Iowa 979, 124 N.W.2d 150.

II. The first error assigned by defendant relates to admission of evidence of the amount paid by the State to Texaco Inc. for property within the improvement area. Since our decision in Redfield v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 251 Iowa 332, 99 N.W.2d 413, 85 A.L.R.2d 96, evidence of the sale price of similar properties has been admissible as substantive evidence of value. Iowa Development Company v. Iowa State Highway, Comm., 252 Iowa 978, 108 N.W.2d 487. But a sale to be considered as a comparable must be between a willing buyer and seller. A sale to a condemnor by a condemnee is not a comparable.

In Jones v. Iowa State Hgwy Comm., 259 Iowa 616, 619, 144 N.W.2d 277, we said: 'The first error urged by defendant is that evidence of the amount paid by the condemnor to other condemnees in the same project is inadmissible. We have uniformly so held. (Citations). The reason such evidence is inadmissible and held to be unduly prejudicial is, even in light of Redfield v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 251 Iowa 332, 99 N.W.2d 413, 85 A.L.R.2d 96, holding the sale price of comparable property may be shown as substantive evidence of value, the sale is not a sale between a willing buyer and seller. The price paid in such instance is the result of a compromise between the condemnor who is forced to acquire the land to complete the project and the condemnee whose land is going to be taken in any event. Neither party is free.'

The evidence was not so insignificant as to be presumed to be without prejudice. We do not know what weight the jury gave to this testimony but evidence of what the condemnor was willing to pay and did pay on a square foot basis for similar property within the improvement area cannot be ignored as of no consequence or harmless. Admission of the evidence complained of constitutes reversible error.

III. Defendant assigns as error admission of evidence of the sale price of two other claimed comparables. Plaintiff offered and the court accepted, over defendant's objection, evidence of...