State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Bloomfield Tractor Sales, Inc.
| Decision Date | 15 July 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 8303,8303 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri ex rel. STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION of Missouri, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BLOOMFIELD TRACTOR SALES, INC., et al. Exceptions of Andrew McClard and Evelyn McClard, Defendants-Respondents. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Raymond S. Roberts, Farmington, George Q. Dawes, Sikeston, for plaintiff-appellant.
C. A. Powell, Powell, Jones & Ringer, Dexter, for defendants-respondents.
This is an appeal by the State Highway Commission (hereinafter called 'Highway') from a judgment based on a jury verdict assessing damages to defendants McClard (hereinafter called 'Owners') in the sum of six thousand dollars. Highway undertook to straighten and improve Supplementary Route SE (which will be referred to as Farm-to-market Route E) which ran south of Bloomfield in Stoddard County. In so doing, Highway condemned Owners' tract which lay on the south side of such Route E. The tract extended approximately two hundred feet east and west along the road. It was sixty-five feet deep (north and south) on the west end and tapered down to a ten-foot depth at the east end. It contained a total of 14/100 of an acre. This property was just outside the city limits of Bloomfield (population 1,330 by 1960 Census) and, by Owner Andrew McClard's testimony, 'hardly a fourth of a quarter' east of the intersection of said Route E with north-south State Highway No. 25. By the testimony of the State Highway Engineer, it lay 'approximately six hundred some odd feet' east of such intersection. On the west end of the tract was a building forty feet by forty feet. This building was made of tin, with a self-supporting roof--that is, it had no posts except along the walls. The building had a dirt floor. Owner Andrew McClard testified that the building was approximately fifteen years old. When built, old or used tin had been used (only) on the back and 'a little bit' on the west end. He had purchased the building, then vacant, approximately five years before from a former employer at a price of one thousand dollars. Since then he made some minor repairs, including the installation of a 'tin horn' (we don't know what that is) and the graveling or regraveling of the driveways. He used the building for a repair shop, his principal business being the repair of farm machinery. He was of the opinion the property was worth sixty-five hundred dollars.
On re-examination by his own counsel, Owner McClard was asked if he knew of any similar property 'anything like being the same property,' in the community which had been sold in the last two years. He testified as to a property known as Leon's Custard Stand situate on State Highway No. 25 a short distance south of the intersection with Route E and fronting about one hundred feet along said State Highway No. 25. This business building was a 'block' building, twenty feet by twenty feet, with something like stucco inside. He said it sold for eighty-five hundred dollars. He had examined the deed.
Highway's witness Chandler, an appraiser of Sikeston, placed the value of the property at twenty-three hundred dollars. He said there was no other property like it in the vicinity.
Highway then called Frank Stanley. He testified that he lived in adjoining New Madrid County and that he was in the farm loan and real estate business and did appraisal work. He had been engaged in that business for four years. He was acquainted with land and real estate in Stoddard County and had appraised property in Stoddard County and in and around Bloomfield during that period. He had followed the sales of property up and down Highway No. 25 in Stoddard County as to what the property sold for, and he was acquainted with sales of property of various kinds in and around Bloomfield for the last four or five years. He had appraised town and suburban property in or near various towns in the surrounding area, including some thirty commercial properties, but he had not appraised any business property inside Bloomfield. He was employed to appraise the property here involved. He went first to look at it and then made an investigation as to what other properties in the vicinity had sold for in the past five years, and he then upgraded or downgraded them in arriving at his appraisal of Owners' property. He mentioned three tracts (apparently vacant lots) concerning which he had gone to the records to ascertain the sale price and then checked further to see if the records reflected the proper sale and took that into consideration at the time he made his appraisal. Owners objected to the witness's opinion because he had had no experience appraising business property in the town of Bloomfield and also because the witness's testimony showed that he based his judgment partly on what someone else told him.
Highways offered to prove that in the opinion of the witness the value of the property was twenty-six hundred dollars. Objection was made 'for the same reasons stated.'
'THE COURT: He says he based it in part on a conversation he had with other people, which is not in evidence.'
The objection was sustained.
After verdict, motion for new trial was filed charging in addition to excessiveness of the verdict, error in excluding the testimony of witness Stanley as to value. A further ground was that the testimony of Owner McClard as to the sale of Leon's Custard Stand tract on Highway No. 25 for eighty-five hundred dollars was false and misleading because such sale included the purchase of various personal property and equipment (incident to a soft ice cream business); that the verdict had been reached by a comparison with this sale; that plaintiff had newly discovered (since trial) evidence that the purchaser and seller of the tract so compared would testify that the purchase price of eighty-five hundred dollars included the personal property; that the Owner's testimony had come as a surprise at the trial; and that Highway had not been guilty of lack of diligence. The motion was accompanied by affidavit of Highway's attorney that Seiling and Jones (seller and purchaser) refused to make affidavits but stated that, if called as witnesses, they would testify that the eighty-five hundred dollars sale price included valuable fixtures, machinery, and equipment; that Highway had no knowledge or way of discovering such evidence prior to trial and had no reason at the time of trial to doubt Owner's testimony. Thereupon a hearings was held, and testimony was taken on the motion.
Buyer Jones testified that the sale of Leon's Custard Stand and the sale price of eighty-five hundred dollars included an ice-cream-making machine and three soda machines and a milk cooler. He estimated the personal property at two thousand dollars. No one from the Highway Department talked to him about the sale previous to the trial. He was at home the day of trial, and no one called him; but someone came to see him that night. The attorneys for the Highways testified that they knew nothing about the custard stand sale until after the trial, when they were informed that there was a probability that the sale included personal property. The evidence shows that the deed involved in the Leon's Custard Stand sale reflected a consideration of eighty-five hundred dollars. It did not reflect the inclusion of personal property in the sale.
In the trial of the case here involved, the voir dire commenced shortly after nine a. m. Four witnesses were examined and some eight exhibits were marked and received in evidence. The record does not reflect the arguments, if any, but it appears that the jury received the case shortly after eleven o'clock and returned a verdict about noon or shortly thereafter.
As to the competency of witness Stanley: There is no exact rule by which the qualification of a witness to testify as to the value of land can be measured. Love v. United States, 8th Cir., 141 F.2d 981, 984. As a general rule, the market value of real estate is established by voluntary sales of other similar property made in the same general vicinity and not too remote in time. Jackson County v. Meyer, Mo., 356 S.W.2d 892, and cases at 894; Missouri Public Service Co. v. Hunt, Mo.App., 274 S.W.2d 27; City of St. Louis v. Buselaki, 336 Mo. 693, 80 S.W.2d 853; 85 A.L.R.2d 110, 119. 1 Consequently the witness (other than the owner) must, in ordinary circumstances, have some knowledge or information as to sales of similar or comparable property. Generally stated, the knowledge of the witness must be such as is demanded by the nature of the subject matter and such as can reasonably be expected in the circumstances. The...
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