State Road Commission v. Board of Park Com'rs of City of Huntington
| Decision Date | 05 May 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 12843,12843 |
| Citation | 173 S.E.2d 919,154 W.Va. 159 |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | , 40 A.L.R.3d 132 The STATE ROAD COMMISSION of West Virginia, a corporation, et al. v. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS OF The CITY OF HUNTINGTON, a corporation, et al., etc. |
Syllabus by the Court
1. In an eminent domain proceeding questions of fact and mixed questions of law and fact, other than the question of just compensation for the land taken, are questions of law for the court when the evidence bearing upon such questions is not conflicting and only one inference can be drawn by reasonable minds from undisputed facts; but the question of just compensation to which the landowner is entitled must be submitted to, and ascertained by a jury as provided by Article III, Section 9, of the Constitution of this State, unless trial of that question by a jury is waived by the parties to such proceeding.
2. Ordinarily, fair market value of the land taken in an eminent domain proceeding is the basis for the ascertainment of just compensation to its owner; but when the land of a governmental agency already devoted to public use by such agency is taken by another governmental agency for public use unrelated to its former use and the land so taken, as previously used, has no market value, the cost of providing an equivalent substitute or necessary replacement which will place the landowner in the same position he would have been in if his land had not been taken becomes the basis for the ascertainment of just compensation to which such landowner is entitled.
3. When in an eminent domain proceeding a specific amount is established by the undisputed evidence as the compensation to which the landowner is entitled for the land taken, and no other amount is disclosed by or included in the evidence, the trial court may properly direct the jury to render a verdict in favor of the landowner for the sole amount so shown by the evidence.
No appearance for plaintiffs in error.
George S. Wallace, Jr., William N. Matthews, Huntington, for defendants in error.
This is an eminent domain proceeding instituted December 3, 1965 in the Circuit Court of Cabell County by the petitioners. The State Road Commission of West Virginia, a corporation, and Burl A. Sawyers, State Road Commissioner of West Virginia, in which the petitioner The State Road Commission of West Virginia, a corporation, sometimes herein referred to as road commission, acquired title to and possession of certain easements and rights of way for the construction of a state road as a part of the system of primary roads and highways of this State over and upon certain land owned by the defendant, Board of Park Commissioners of the City of Huntington, West Virginia, a corporation, a governmental agency possessing the right of eminent domain, sometimes herein referred to as the board. The land taken by the road commission is located in Cabell County, West Virginia, and is composed of three tracts or parcels, which contain, respectively, 2.18 acres, 3.04 acres and 2.50 acres and aggregate 7.72 acres. At the time of the institution of this proceeding the board used the foregoing land as part of the public park facilities maintained and operated by the board and it had been acquired in part by voluntary purchase and in part by proceedings in eminent domain.
The petitioner road commission took possession of the property on March 24, 1964. Commissioners appointed by the court to ascertain just compensation made an award of $15,000.00 as such compensation on April 12, 1966 for the land taken. The road commission filed exceptions to the report of the commissioners and both the road commission and the board demanded a trial by jury.
By pre-trial order entered January 9, 1967, the court ruled that the issues to be tried were (1) what amount the defendant board is entitled to recover for the land taken and damages to the residue; (2) whether the board is required to establish, as a prerequisite to recovery in this proceeding, that the land taken by the road commission was necessarily used for the purposes of the board in the sense that it would be required to obtain substitute or equivalent property in order to carry out such purposes; and (3) what is the proper measure of damages to be applied in the taking of land by one governmental agency from another governmental agency; and the foregoing issues were set for hearing by the court on March 10, 1967.
By subsequent pre-trial order entered June 8, 1967, the court reled that before the board is entitled to any compensation for land taken, it is required to establish that the land taken was reasonably necessary for park purposes and further that such issue was a question of law to be determined by the court. The court further ruled that if the board was able to prove that the land taken was reasonably necessary for park purposes, the just compensation to be determined by a jury is the reasonable cost at the time of the taking on March 24, 1964 of replacing the land taken and of restoring the remaining property of the board to the same equal utility for the purpose for which the land taken had been used when it was taken by the road commission in this proceeding.
Certain undisputed facts were stipulated by the attorneys representing the respective parties. During the trial on February 7, 1968, the court conducted a hearing out of the presence of the jury to determine whether the land taken was reasonably necessary for park purposes and after hearing the testimony of three witnesses in behalf of the defendant board and three witnesses in behalf of the petitioner road commission, the court ruled that the land taken had been acquired for public and necessary use by the board in the operation of its park system and that from the time of its acquisition it had been necessarily used by the board for park purposes. Upon the conclusion of the foregoing hearing the court and the parties returned to the courtroom and upon the trial before the jury G. M. Mossman, a qualified valuation witness produced in behalf of the board, testified that he had located certain land as a suitable replacement for the land taken; that the replacement land consisted of eight acres and was the only land available as a suitable replacement for the land taken; and that the reasonable cost of such replacement land was $15,000.00. The evidence of this witness was not controverted. The petitioner road commission introduced no evidence as to the cost of the replacement for the land taken.
At the conclusion of the evidence relating to the cost of the replacement land, the board moved the court to direct a verdict in its favor in the amount of $15,000.00 as just compensation for the land taken. The court sustained the motion of the board and at the direction of the court the jury returned this verdict, which was duly signed by the foreman: 'By direction of the court, we the jury do agree and find that the sum of Fifteen Thousand Dollars ($15,000.00) is just compensation to be paid to the defendant landowner for the 7.72 acres taken by the Road Commission for highway purposes.'
By its final judgment rendered September 6, 1968, the court overruled the motion of the petitioners to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial and held that upon payment of the compensation awarded by the jury title to the estates in the land taken described in the judgment be vested in the petitioner, The State Road Commission of West Virginia. To that judgment this writ of error was granted by this Court upon the application of the petitioner The State Road Commission of West Virginia on June 23, 1969.
On February 10, 1970, this proceeding was heard by this Court upon the record and the brief and oral argument in behalf of the defendant Board of Park Commissioners of the City of Huntington and was submitted for decision. The petitioner, The State Road Commission of West Virginia, filed no brief and did not appear at the hearing of this case. Though it filed no brief, it assigned numerous errors in its petition for a writ of error which, as summarized, are the action of the circuit court (1) in ruling that the land taken in this proceeding was used and was reasonably necessary for park purposes and in refusing to submit that issue as one of fact to the jury; (2) in refusing to direct a verdict for The State Road Commission of West Virginia on the ground that the evidence in behalf of the board was insufficient to establish the value and utility for park purposes of the land to replace the land taken; and (3) in directing a verdict for $15,000.00 in favor of the defendant Board of Park Commissioners of the City of Huntington, West Virginia.
The evidence in behalf of the board to show that the land taken was used for park purposes and that such use was reasonably necessary for the maintenance and operation of the park is not controverted in any material aspect and the action of the court in holding, as a matter of law, that the land taken was used and was necessary for park purposes and in refusing to submit that issue to the jury was proper and did not constitute error. Article III, Section 9, of the Constitution of this State provides in part that private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compensation, that when private property shall be taken or damaged for public use the compensation to the owner shall be ascertained in such manner as may be prescribed by general law, and that when required by either of the parties such compensation shall be ascertained by an impartial jury of twelve freeholders. The only question required by the Constitution to be determined by a jury in a proceeding in eminent domain is the question of just compensation. There is no constitutional requirement that any other question in a condemnation proceeding shall be submitted to and determined by the jury. The...
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