Swygert v. Platte Valley Public Power & Irrigation Dist.
| Decision Date | 14 July 1937 |
| Docket Number | 30040. |
| Citation | 274 N.W. 492,133 Neb. 194 |
| Parties | SWYGERT ET AL. v. PLATTE VALLEY PUBLIC POWER & IRRIGATION DIST. |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
As a general rule, courts do not amend or correct verdicts in matters of substance after discharge of the jury, but this does not prevent corrections with respect to clerical errors or formal matters and the elimination of interest which the law forbids.
Appeal from District Court, Lincoln, County; Nisley, Judge.
Proceeding in the matter of the application of the Platte Valley Public Power & Irrigation District to appropriate lands situate in Lincoln County, Neb., owned by Jefferson Swygert and others for the purpose of acquiring right of way for construction of works of internal improvement, which was revived in the names of Joseph Swygert and others, heirs at law of Jefferson Swygert, deceased, on the death of Jefferson Swygert. From an adverse judgment of the district court entered in the landowners' appeal from an award of appraisers appointed by the county court, the Platte Valley Public Power & Irrigation District appeals, and the landowners cross-appeal.
Reversed and remanded, with directions.
Beeler, Crosby & Baskins and E. H. Evans, all of North Platte, for Platte Valley Public Power & Irrigation Dist.
Hoagland, Carr & Hoagland, of North Platte, for Joseph Swygert and others.
Heard before GOSS, C. J., and ROSE, GOOD, EBERLY, DAY, PAINE, and CARTER, JJ.
The Platte Valley Public Power and Irrigation District commenced this proceeding in the county court of Lincoln county September 7, 1934, to condemn and appropriate to its own use 160 acres of land for the purposes of its Sutherland reservoir, in the basin of which the land is situated. It was owned by Jefferson Swygert and others and was described as the southeast quarter of section 13, township 13, range 34, Lincoln county.
The county court appointed appraisers who viewed the premises, heard the parties and, on September 24, 1934, assessed the value of the land and the damages by reason of the appropriation at $35 an acre, or $5,600. October 10, 1934, the appropriator turned the amount of the award, or $5,600, over to the county court for the benefit of the owners and took possession of the condemned land under the power of eminent domain.
The landowners appealed to the district court, where they were designated as plaintiffs and the Platte Valley Public Power and Irrigation District as defendant. On the appeal, the cause was tried to a jury on the single issue of the fair market value of the land taken, and from judgment on a verdict in favor of plaintiffs for $6,128.38, defendant, the appropriator, appealed to the supreme court, and plaintiffs, the landowners, took a cross-appeal.
Defendant insists that the district court erred in directing the jury to include interest in their verdict in addition to the fair market value of the land, and also erred in rejecting a verdict in favor of plaintiffs for $35 an acre plus 6 per cent. interest and in sending the jury back to the jury room to change their first verdict by stating the total value of the 160 acres with interest.
The power of defendant to condemn the land, pay for it and take it is conceded. The only issue on appeal to the district court was the fair market value of the land. The trial court in one instruction stated that issue to the jury, but in a later instruction erroneously said to them:
" Should you, in your verdict, find for the plaintiffs, you must allow them interest at the rate of six per cent. from September 7, 1934, and add the same to your verdict."
It is well-settled condemnation law that landowners are not entitled to interest or costs in the district court on appeal unless the recovery there on the controverted issue exceeds the award...
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