Sykes v. United States

• Decision Date: 11 April 1968
• Docket Number: No. 18838.,18838.
• Parties: Ralph SYKES, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

392 F.2d 735 (1968)

Ralph SYKES, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 18838.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

April 11, 1968.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Ralph Sykes, pro se.

Stephen C. Glassman, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for appellee. Edwin L. Weisl, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Charles M. Conway, U. S. Atty., Fort Smith, Ark., Max E. Findley, Special Asst. to the U. S. Atty., Fort Smith, Ark., and Edmund B. Clark, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., were with Stephen C. Glassman, Washington, D. C., on the brief.

Before VOGEL, Senior Circuit Judge, BLACKMUN and LAY, Circuit Judges.

LAY, Circuit Judge.

The landowner appeals from the judgment of the district court approving a condemnation award set by a Commission appointed pursuant to Fed.R.Civ. P. 71A(h). The district court in a separate order also entered judgment against the landowner for restitution to the government for an overpayment in the deposit it made at the time of the taking of the land in question. We reverse and remand for a new trial.

A preliminary jurisdictional problem arises from the chronology of events shown in the record:

1. On December 7, 1966, the District Judge, the Honorable John E. Miller, filed his opinion finding the Commission's award proper and stating that the overpayment issue "is a question that is not presently before this court."

2. On the same day he entered a separate order fixing the compensation for the land taken. At the end of this order, he noted that "Jurisdiction of this cause is retained for such other orders as may be necessary."

3. On February 2, 1967, appellant filed his notice of appeal from the judgment of December 7, 1966.

4. On February 20, 1967, Judge Miller filed a document titled "FINAL JUDGMENT" in which he confirmed that the amount of compensation previously set in the December 7 order was "just compensation" and added:

"That the difference between the amount heretofore disbursed to said Defendants on June 3, 1963 ($10,000.00), and the total amount of just compensation awarded for the taking of said tracts, is the sum of $6,925.00, for which sum the United States of America is hereby granted a judgment against the Defendants, Ralph Sykes and Sue Sykes, together with interest thereon at the rate of 6% per annum from June 3, 1963, and running until the amount of said deficiency judgment, together with interest thereon, is re-deposited into the registry of this Court."

5. On March 2, 1967, an attorney for appellant served and filed a "motion for new trial and to alter or amend judgment;". The motions were never ruled upon by the court below.

6. On March 7, 1967, appellant's attorney was allowed to withdraw.

7. On March 8, 1967, appellant requested leave to withdraw his notice of appeal filed February 2, 1967. This was allowed by the district court on March 9, 1967.

8. On April 18, 1967, a new notice of appeal was filed from the "final judgment" of February 20, 1967.

The district court's order of December 7, 1966, disposed of the controversy in the case by approving the Commission's determination of just compensation. Cf. Catlin v. United States, 324 U.S. 229, 233, 65 S.Ct. 631, 89 L.Ed. 911 (1945); City of Louisa v. Levi, 140 F.2d 512, 514 (6 Cir. 1944). Even though the order "retained" jurisdiction, the court specifically disclaimed any intention to rule on the overpayment issues. The opinion and order of December 7 were set forth on separate documents, as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 58, as amended, and the order was entered as provided in Rule 79(a). It is clear that the mere retention of jurisdiction for future ministerial orders does not in itself withhold the "finality" required to make the order appealable. See Kiehn v. Dodge County, 19 F.2d 503, 504 (8 Cir. 1927); see generally 6 Moore's Federal Practice ¶ 54.121 and particularly at p. 120, n. 48. Consequently, the order of December 7, 1966 was final for the purpose of appeal, and the appellant's timely notice of appeal served to divest the lower court of jurisdiction over the cause on February 2, 1967. The subsequent motion for new trial, the new "final judgment" of February 20, 1967, the purported withdrawal of notice of appeal, and the notice of appeal filed April 18, 1967, were all nullities since jurisdiction then was in the appellate court.¹ In its present posture, then, this appeal presents only the issues arising out of the final judgment of December 7, 1966.²

Appellant has appeared pro se below as well as on this appeal. He insists as he did before the trial court that he was without counsel at the Commission's hearing and therefore was denied due process and "effective assistance of counsel." However, as Judge Miller points out in his opinion below, appellant had retained competent counsel and chose to discharge him. Appellant insists that he wanted to use the same counsel and experts as litigated in Ozark Real Estate Co. v. United States, 377 F.2d 88 (8 Cir. 1967), involving similar and adjacent tracts of land. However, in the above case the Commission disregarded the landowner's experts' appraisal and awarded compensation on the basis of the appraisal of the government's witnesses. Presumably, appellant would have used the same experts and would have met a similar result had he joined in that proceeding. This court affirmed the award handed down by the Commission.³

Appellant's basic contention on appeal is that he has been deprived of his right of trial by jury under the Seventh Amendment. This court has recently repeated the principle that the Seventh Amendment applies only to "suits at common law," and therefore only in those actions triable before a jury at common law at the time the Amendment was adopted can the right be raised. See Klein v. Shell Oil Co., 386 F.2d 659 (8 Cir. 1967). We specifically passed upon this question in United States v. Hess, 71 F.2d 78, 80 (8 Cir. 1934).

Rule 71A(h) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure reads, in part:

"* * * any party may have a trial by jury of the issue of just compensation by filing a demand therefor within the time allowed for answer or within such further time as the court may fix, unless the court in its discretion orders that, because of the character, location, or quantity of the property to be condemned, or for other reasons in the interest of justice, the issue of compensation shall be determined by a commission of three persons appointed by it."

In commenting upon this rule, Judge Woodrough said in United States v. Chamberlain Wholesale Grocery Co., 226 F.2d 492, 498 (8 Cir. 1955), cert. denied 350 U.S. 989, 76 S.Ct. 475, 100 L.Ed. 855 (1956):

"There can be no doubt that when the committee `earnestly\' recommended `the rule as now drafted for promulgation by the Court, in the public interest\', it intended a broad discretion to be vested in the District Court to choose between the use of juries or of commissioners in the condemnation cases brought before them."

However, an appellate court does have a duty, where a party requests a jury trial, to review the reasons for assigning a commission to make findings of facts. See United States v. Theimer, 199 F.2d 501 (10 Cir. 1952). Judge Miller in his order of July 28, 1964, assigned the reasons for exercising Rule 71A(h) in the present case to be the same as those that existed in the first case, United States v. 366.05 Acres of Land, Civ.No. 1528 (W.D.Ark.), involving the Dardanelle project on the Arkansas River. His original order appointing a commission, dated December 14, 1960, recites:

1. The project requires the condemnation of approximately 800 tracts owned by about 600 different parties.

2. Many of the tracts have disputed boundaries.

3. Most of the area is underlaid with minerals of various kinds, including oil and gas, and there are various lease rights outstanding.

4. A great number of tracts will be severed from now-operating units and invariably the question of severance damage will arise.

5. Generally, the property is valuable for agricultural as well as mineral purposes, and "because of the character, location, and quantity of the property to be condemned, in the interest of justice the issue of just compensation should be determined by a Commission of three persons."

6. "If a Commission is not used, the landowners will be required to travel from 50 to more than 100 miles to attend Court, and it will constitute a hardship on said landowners to transport or cause to be transported and to pay the expenses of their witnesses to Fort Smith, Arkansas. It is highly impractical and expensive to transport a jury to view the tracts involved in the area, and the court is convinced that evenhanded justice to all concerned requires that just compensation be determined by a Commission composed of experts in the valuation of property. * * *"

Most of these reasons appear to be inapplicable to the present case.⁴ Here, we are faced with evaluating individually just two of the tracts owned by Mr. Sykes. There is no "boundary dispute" to complicate the evaluation nor is there any issue with regard to mineral leases. Furthermore, in the original cases only the government asked for a jury trial, whereas the landowners did not. The court's original feeling that the expense to the landowners attending court, in bringing witnesses, or in taking the jury to the scene, etc., justified use of the commission, would seem less appropriate in the instant case. Here the landowner asked for a jury trial as well as the government. Although the right to a jury trial was not an issue in Morgan v. United States, 356 F.2d 17 (8 Cir. 1966), the government in its brief at page 4 in a footnote filed before this court stated:

"The Government\'s complaint demanded a jury trial and Morgan joined in this motion. In denying that motion the court said that it had `been operating through the commission\' since entry of the first order in this project and

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