Case Name: Thomas Edward WILLIAMSON (also known as Thomas E. Williamson) and Wife, Brenda E. Williamson, Appellants, v. LOWNDES COUNTY, Mississippi, Appellee
Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1998-11-24
Citations: 723 So. 2d 1231
Docket Number: No. 96-CA-01097 COA
Parties: Thomas Edward WILLIAMSON (also known as Thomas E. Williamson) and Wife, Brenda E. Williamson, Appellants, v. LOWNDES COUNTY, Mississippi, Appellee.
Judges: BRIDGES, C.J., THOMAS, P.J., COLEMAN, KING, PAYNE, AND SOUTHWICK, JJ., CONCUR.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 723
Pages: 1231–1235

Head Matter:
Thomas Edward WILLIAMSON (also known as Thomas E. Williamson) and Wife, Brenda E. Williamson, Appellants, v. LOWNDES COUNTY, Mississippi, Appellee.
No. 96-CA-01097 COA
Court of Appeals of Mississippi.
Nov. 24, 1998.
Gary Goodwin, Columbus, Attorney for Appellants.
Douglas Dalrymple, Columbus, Attorney for Appellee.

Opinion:
McMILLIN, P.J.,
for the Court:
¶ 1. This is an appeal from a judgment entered in the Special Court of Eminent Domain of Lowndes County. The appellants are the property owners who find themselves aggrieved by the amount of compensation permitted them for the acquisition of a two and half acre tract by Lowndes County for public road purposes. We conclude that the evidence of value presented by the condemning authority was insufficient as a matter of law to permit the jury to reach a reasoned conclusion as to the value of the property at the critical date dictated by law. This conclusion requires us to reverse and remand for further proceedings.
¶ 2. Lowndes County commenced this proceeding in January 1995. The only evidence of value presented by the county in its casein-chief was the testimony of Janice Holley, a contract appraiser who had completed her appraisal work on the property in March 1993. Based on her evaluation of the property, she offered the opinion that the damages accruing to the property owners by virtue of this partial acquisition from a larger plot was $7,586. The property owners presented evidence that the proper measure of damages for the acquisition was over $100,000. The jury returned a verdict setting just compensation for the taking at $23,679.
¶ 3. The appellants' primary complaint with the county's evidence is that it was, on its face, so untimely as to have essentially no probative value. In cases of eminent domain, the burden of presenting competent evidence of fair value of the property being acquired rests with the condemning authority. Ellis v. Mississippi State Highway Comm'n, 487 So.2d 1339, 1342 (Miss.1986). If the authority fails to present competent evidence of value, then the acquisition of title to the property cannot occur. Id. Evidence of value must, by statute, relate to a particular point in time — namely, the date of filing of the complaint commencing the acquisition process. "Evidence of fair market value shall be established as of the date of the filing of the complaint." Miss. Code Ann. 11-27-19 (Supp.1998).
¶4. The only evidence presented by Lowndes County in this case consisted of one appraiser who completed her work almost two years prior to the date suit was filed. No effort was made by the condemning authority to have this appraiser or some other expert update that appraisal work to determine what, if any, fluctuations had occurred in the property value in the nearly two year period that followed. By the appraiser's own testimony, her outdated figures pertaining to value could not possibly have accurately reflected the valuation on the critical date demanded by the statute. When asked if she had updated her analysis to consider any changes in value in the intervening two year period, she said, "We were not asked to update the appraisals." Later, on redirect, the county's attorney, in an attempt to rehabilitate the appraiser's testimony, elicited this exchange:
Q. Miss Holley, in your opinion has there been any substantial or significant increase or decrease in property values in this area between March of ninety-three and January of ninety-five?
A. Um — we have seen property values increase over time. Uh — saying significant, I — that's a relative term — uh—but property values in Lowndes County have increased.
Q. They haven't doubled have they or have they?
A. No.
¶ 5. Thus, viewing the county's evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, we can conclude only that the value of the appellants' property had, in fact, increased since her earlier appraisal work and the only thing known with any certainty is that the increase had not caused the property value to double. Certainly, it ought to be readily apparent that this evidence does not begin to approach the measure of certainty that the statute and case law requires. Writing on a somewhat related issue, the Mississippi Supreme Court noted, in the case of Pearl River Valley Water Supply District v. Wood, that the determination of just compensation when a partial taking occurs involves a finding of "before and after" values of the owners' remaining property and "[i]t is the value of the land immediately before [the date of filing suit] which the statute contemplates will constitute the 'before the taking' computation." Pearl River Valley Water Supply Dist. v. Wood, 252 Miss. 580, 595, 172 So.2d 196, 203 (1965). The court went on to say that
[i]t is apparent that even the most liberal interpretation of the word 'immediately', (before the taking) cannot be construed to mean March 19, 1959, some three years prior to the date the eminent domain suit was actually filed, which in essence and effect is what appellant contends the word 'immediately' means.
Id. at 206.
¶ 6. We find the failure of Lowndes County to present evidence of value bearing some reasonable relation to the actual date that suit was commenced fatal to this verdict. Neither do we find the,, fact that the property owners proceeded to present their own evidence of value constitutes a waiver of this fundamental failure in the condemning authority's ease. Though the jury did return a verdict substantially in excess of that testified to by the county's only expert witness, the verdict nevertheless reflected a substantial discount from the owners' evidence of value. While it is true that the jury is the ultimate fact-finder in regard to valuation in eminent domain proceedings (See State Highway Comm'n of Mississippi v. Warren, 530 So.2d 704, 707 (Miss.1988)), the fact remains that the jury's findings must be based upon competent evidence. In this case, the jury evidently believed that the property owners' evidence of value was substantially inflated. But, because it had before it no competent evidence of a lesser value to guide its deliberations in reducing the owners' inflated demands, the jury was left to nothing but its own speculative analysis to arrive at a properly discounted figure to represent true value. A verdict based upon such speculation cannot be permitted to stand.
¶ 7. We áre, thus, compelled to conclude that this judgment must be reversed and remanded for further proceedings to determine the proper amount of compensation due the appealing property owners — a proceeding in which the county must present competent evidence of the value of the property being acquired as of the date this suit was commenced.
¶ 8. THE JUDGMENT OF THE LOWNDES COUNTY SPECIAL COURT OF EMINENT DOMAIN IS REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR FURTHER PROCEEDINGS NOT INCONSISTENT WITH THIS OPINION. COSTS OF THIS AP PEAL ARE ASSESSED TO THE APPEL-LEE.
BRIDGES, C.J., THOMAS, P.J., COLEMAN, KING, PAYNE, AND SOUTHWICK, JJ., CONCUR.
HINKEBEIN, J., DISSENTS WITH SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION JOINED BY DIAZ AND HERRING, JJ.