United States v. Iriarte, 4285

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit
• Writing for the Court: MAGRUDER, MAHONEY and WOODBURY, Circuit
• Citation: United States v. Iriarte, 166 F.2d 800 (1st Cir. 1948)
• Decision Date: 11 March 1948
• Docket Number: 4286.,No. 4285,4285
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. IRIARTE et al. IRIARTE et al. v. UNITED STATES.

166 F.2d 800 (1948)

UNITED STATES v. IRIARTE et al. IRIARTE et al. v. UNITED STATES.

Nos. 4285, 4286.

Circuit Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

March 11, 1948.

Jason D. Lee, Atty., Dept. of Justice, of Washington, D. C. (A. Devitt Vanech, Asst. Atty. Gen., Philip F. Herrick, U. S. Atty., of San Juan, P. R., and Roger P. Marquis, of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for United States.

Celestino Iriarte, Jr., of San Juan, P. R., José A. Poventud, of Ponce, P. R., and F. Fernandez Cuyar, of San Juan, P. R., for Celestino Iriarte, Jr., and others.

Before MAGRUDER, MAHONEY and WOODBURY, Circuit Judges.

WOODBURY, Circuit Judge.

These are cross appeals from a judgment in a condemnation case entered by the District Court of the United States for Puerto Rico following our mandate to that court on previous cross appeals taken by the parties from a prior judgment of the court below in the case.

In our opinion on the former cross appeals¹ we considered these issues: (1) the statutory authority of the United States to take the land in question for the use disclosed in the declaration of taking; (2) the legal right of the landowners to have the amount of their compensation fixed by a jury; (3) whether on the record the court below could reasonably find that at the time of the taking the land involved did not have a fair market value of at least $200,000; and (4) whether the court below erred in fixing the amount of just compensation at $33,297. We then held that the United States had authority under the pertinent statutes to take the land involved for the military use to which it intended to put that land, i. e., "for use in connection with the establishment of a terminal and dock to serve the Puerto Rican General Depot", that the landowners were not entitled to trial by jury of the issue of the amount of their just compensation, and that on the record the court below could in reason fix just compensation at less than $200,000. This disposed of the landowners' appeal. But on the Government's cross appeal we held that the court below had fallen into error in determining the amount of the compensation it awarded. It seemed to us from reading that court's memorandum opinion that its determination of the fair market value of the land had been to some extent affected by the Government's general policy of dredging navigable waters without expense to the riparian owners, when there was nothing in the record to indicate that there was a sufficiently immediate prospect of the Government dredging the harbor upon which the land in question fronted to have any effect whatever upon the value of the land. That is to say, we felt that the court below had considered that an element of value inhered in the land by reason of the Government's policy above mentioned when there was no evidence to support the conclusion that the land, although riparian, would benefit from that policy in the forseeable future. Hence we held that it was error for that court to have considered the Government's policy with respect to the improvement of navigable waters as having any bearing on the issue of the value of the land, and therefore we remanded the case to the court below for further consistent proceedings.

Upon remand the parties stipulated for submission of the case for re-trial on the previous record and briefs, plus a short memorandum of additional authorities, and they also stipulated, "in order to save the points in case of a second review herein", that the defendants, the landowners, might re-submit to the trial court for its consideration and decision the same questions they had raised before, that is, the question of the statutory authority for the taking, the question of their right to have a jury determine the amount of their just compensation, and whether on the record it could in reason be found that the fair market value of the land was not at least $200,000. So submitted, the court below, without making any mention of the points re-submitted by the landowners, reopened the issue of just compensation and proceeded to revalue the land at $45,000, that being an increase of approximately $11,700 over the value it had previously determined, saying in its memorandum opinion:

"I have given a most careful consideration to the record in this case and have reached the conclusion that in my former decision I did not give proper weight to the testimony of Mr. Robert Prann as to a sale of property which he owned near the Iriarte property. I also failed to give proper consideration to the testimony of Mr. Canejas who testified that he had sold several lots located near the Iriarte property at about the time the condemnation proceeding in this case were instituted. He stated that he sold some lots of One Dollar per square meter and some others at One Dollar and a Half and Two Dollars. The Canejas property was and is used as an urban development. There can be no doubt that Iriarte property which adjoins the Canejas lots is as valuable for urban development as the Canejas property. Conceding and comparing the two properties, my conclusion is that the Iriarte property is as valuable as the lots sold by Canejas. I am also convinced that the Iriarte properties are not desirable for residential purposes but are suited for the purpose of a dock or terminal site. I think the Iriarte properties are worth at least as much as the property sold by Mr. Prann at about the time of his condemnation. Mr. Prann states that he sold his property for $1250 per acre and this is not denied.

"I find now for the reasons indicated that the Iriarte property at the time of the filing of the declaration of taking had a market value of $45,000 and judgment in the amount will be entered."

The landowners' appeal from the present judgment entered according to this finding raises no question that we have not already considered. Since no new evidence has been offered or new authorities cited it will suffice for us to say that we see no reason to change or modify the views expressed in our former opinion.

The Government's appeal cannot be disposed of so briefly.

It contends first that under our previous mandate the court below had no authority to increase the amount of its previous award of $33,297, but only had authority to decrease that award by eliminating therefrom the element of value which we held had been erroneously included therein, and second, that the court below erred in that it based its award of $45,000 for the land taken solely upon evidence of sales prices for wholly dissimilar...