Title: State v. Long
Citation: 344 So. 2d 754
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: April 1, 1977

344 So. 2d 754 (1977)
STATE of Alabama
v.
Horace L. LONG, Jr., et al.
SC 1378.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
April 1, 1977.
Rehearing Denied May 6, 1977.
*755 Joseph J. Boswell, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Mobile, for appellant.
Victor T. Hudson, II, Mobile, for appellee.
ALMON, Justice.
This appeal by the State of Alabama involves the condemnation by the State of approximately 96 acres for Interstate Highway 65 in the general vicinity of Mobile. The original application for condemnation was filed in the Probate Court of Mobile County. In accordance with a report by three commissioners appointed by the probate *756 judge, the Probate Court awarded damages and compensation in the sum of $120,700.00.
Mr. and Mrs. Horace L. Long appealed to the circuit court and requested a jury. The only issue at trial was the fair market value of the property condemned. Expert witnesses placed the value of the property at between $93,000.00 (the lowest estimate, given by a State's witness) and $513,510.00 (the highest estimate, given by an appellee's witness). The jury assessed compensation damages at $290,000.00. The State appealed without filing a motion for a new trial.
In order to preserve for appeal questions related to damages, the State must file a motion for a new trial alleging as a ground that the verdict was excessive. State v. Ward, 293 Ala. 516, 306 So. 2d 265 (1975). A similar requirement is placed on the condemnee when he appeals. Mims v. Mississippi Power Company, 282 Ala. 90, 209 So. 2d 375 (1968). The State failed to file such a motion; however, we now hold that such a motion is no longer required to preserve questions ruled on by the trial judge, though such a motion must still be made to preserve the specific question of excessive verdict.
The only way to get the question of an excessive or inadequate verdict before the trial court is on a motion for a new trial. There is no other way that a trial judge can rule on it, and such a ruling is necessary to preserve the question for appeal. An analogous situation exists when the question of sufficiency of the evidence is raised; the only way to preserve it for appeal is to raise it in a motion for a new trial (or perhaps by motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict). Horn v. Smith, 292 Ala. 503, 296 So. 2d 719 (1974). However, no one would contend that this court should deny review of the admissibility of specific testimony properly objected to at trial because the appellant did not move for a new trial asserting insufficiency of the evidence, or that we should not review a jury charge because of the lack of such a motion. Yet, in condemnation cases this court currently requires a motion for a new trial asserting an excessive or inadequate verdict before we will consider specific errors. The theory is that if the appellant is satisfied with the damages (because he does not argue they are excessive or inadequate), then any error relating to damages is harmless. The same logic would apply equally well to sufficiency of the evidence: Any error as to specific evidence or the jury charge is harmless because the appellant is satisfied with the sufficiency of the evidence (because he does not argue that the evidence was insufficient). Of course, such a statement, while as equally logical, has no basis in law, so why do we require it in condemnation cases?
The fact that a verdict is not excessive does not mean that it is "proper." In this case the expert witnesses placed the value of the property at between approximately $100,000.00 and $500,000.00. Any verdict within this wide range would not be excessive. Cobb v. Malone &amp; Collins, 92 Ala. 630, 9 So. 738 (1890); State v. Central of Georgia R. Co., 293 Ala. 675, 309 So. 2d 452 (1975); State v. Wise Development Corp., 293 Ala. 671, 309 So. 2d 448 (1975); State v. Walker, 281 Ala. 182, 200 So. 2d 482 (1967). But such a verdict would not necessarily be proper. Errors relating to the correctness of jury charges, jury arguments, and rulings on evidence affect the verdict.
Whether the present rule should be reversed, we need not decide, as Rule 4 of the Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure (1977) mandates such a reversal. Rule 4(a)(3) of the Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure (1977) provides that "[a]ny error or ground of reversal or modification of a judgment or order which was asserted in the trial court may be asserted on appeal without regard to whether such error or ground has been raised by motion in the trial court under Rule 52(b) [Findings by the Court, (b) Amendment] or Rule 59 [New trials; Amendment of Judgments] of the ARCP." The Committee Comments add the following:
We therefore hold that a motion for a new trial alleging excessive verdict is no longer required to preserve for appeal questions ruled on by the trial judge. Of course, such a motion is still required to preserve the specific question of excessive verdict. We now proceed to the issues ruled on by the trial court on which the State alleges error.
At trial the appellee entered into evidence the deposition of Sheldon Morgan, Vice-President of Industrial Development at Merchants National Bank of Mobile. The deposition was taken June 3, 1975, eight days before the case went to trial. Within the deposition Mr. Morgan explained that at the time of trial he would be at a banking school at Rutgers University in Brunswick, New Jersey; the school had been scheduled for a year. No reason is given by the State to believe that Morgan was not at the banking school.
*758 The State contends that Morgan's deposition should not have been admitted for two reasons:
Rule 32(a)(3)(B) of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure reads as follows:
Prior to Rule 32 ARCP, Tit. 7, § 474(4), Code of Alabama 1940, Recompiled 1958, controlled the use of depositions at trial. The applicable provision of that section read as follows:
The word "resides" in § 474(4)(c)(4) was conspicuously replaced by the word "is" in Rule 32(a)(3)(B). Furthermore, even under Tit. 7, § 474(4)(c)(4), being absent from the state was sufficient.
In Alabama Power Company v. Taylor, 293 Ala. 484, 306 So. 2d 236 (1975), Taylor, the plaintiff in the case, wanted to introduce the deposition of a consulting engineer who was a resident of the county in which the trial was held; the deposition was taken by Alabama Power Company. At the time of trial the deponent was in either Birmingham or Atlanta, and did not appear, though he had been subpoenaed.
We see no difference between Alabama Power Company v. Taylor and the case at hand, with the possible exception that in Alabama Power the deponent had been subpoenaed; however, the failure to subpoena the witness when he is at a greater distance than 100 miles from the place of the trial or out of the state is not a reason to prevent the deposition from being entered into evidence.
The State bases its argument on the cases of Weiss v. Weiner, 10 F.R.D. 387 (D.C.Md., 1950); Eller v. Mutual Ben. Health &amp; Accident Ass'n, 1 F.R.D. 280 (D.C.Iowa, 1940), and Arnstein v. Porter, 154 F.2d 464 (2d *759 C.C.A., 1946). These cases do not support appellant's position.
in Weiss and Eller, the party and nonparties, respectively, were described as residing outside the 100 mile limit, but that does not mean that they must reside outside the 100 mile limit. In Arnstein, Judge Frank was reviewing the propriety of a summary judgment based on depositions of the plaintiff and defendant. Part of his reasoning in remanding the case for trial stemmed from his belief that actual testimony should be required when the correctness of a summary judgment is in doubt, rather than relying on depositions, which are substitutes, second-bests. We agree with Judge Frank's decision, especially in consideration of our scintilla evidence rule. However, the question of when a deposition should be allowed into evidence at trial was not an issue in Arnstein. (The defendant in Arnstein resided within a few miles of the place of trial.) See Weiss, supra, which agrees with our interpretation of Arnstein. The State's objection to the deposition is also partly based on the "unless" clause of Rule 32(a)(3)(B). It contends that because appellee acquiesced in Morgan's trip, he thereby procured Morgan's absence.
While we conclude that the deposition was properly admitted, we add the caveat that we are dealing with a nonparty expert witness, not a party to the suit. Additional considerations may exist with a party who wants to submit his deposition in place of appearing at trial that do not exist with a nonparty. See 4A Moore's Federal Practice, § 32.05[1], and Richmond v. Brooks, 227 F.2d 490 (2d C.C.A., 1955).
Appellant's other contention is that part of Morgan's deposition is inadmissible. Morgan concluded "that the Long property and the property known as the Ladd property, which is adjacent thereto, when together, form a prime industrial site." The State would have us conclude that Morgan's testimony is "tantamount to testimony about a land use which is purely imaginary and based on pure speculation and conjecture." We note that the State's argument goes to the question of whether the highest and best use of a tract of land may be based on the use the tract in association with adjacent land held by other owners, not whether the tract is capable of being an industrial site assuming the adjacent tract might be included.
The fact that the adjacent land is held in ownership by another party who may or may not want to sell is not determinative.
See United States v. Fuller, 409 U.S. 488, 93 S. Ct. 801, 35 L. Ed. 2d 16 (1973).
The State cites no cases in support of its contention, nor does it give any reason to believe that a prospective buyer would not consider the value of this property in respect to adjacent properties. The mere fact that the adjacent property is held in another ownership does not make their combined use speculative and imaginative without other supporting factors. See Olsen, supra. The bargaining power of the individual seller would certainly be greater if he owned his tract and the adjacent tract, but that does not make testimony possibility of the use of both tracts in combination inadmissible.
The judgment of the trial court is hereby affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C. J., and MADDOX, SHORES, EMBRY and BEATTY, JJ., concur.
BLOODWORTH and JONES, JJ., concur specially.
FAULKNER, J., not sitting.
BLOODWORTH, Justice, concurring specially.
I concur in that part of the opinion of Mr. Justice Almon for the Court which construes Rule 4(a)(3), ARAP, as no longer requiring us to follow our rule that, a motion for new trial, alleging excessive verdict, is necessary in order to preserve for appeal the evidentiary rulings by the trial court in condemnation cases.
Although Rule 4(a)(3) does not specifically address the rule of our cases, this departure from prior practice seems implicit in the language of Rule 4(a)(3) as it is buttressed by the "Committee Comments."
Moreover, Rule 1 specifically mandates that this Court construe the Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure "so as to assure the fast, speedy and inexpensive determination of every appellate proceeding on its merits." [Emphasis supplied.]
It is thus that I concur in this opinion, even though this rule has been followed by this Court for many years. See State v. Pugh, 293 Ala. 593, 308 So. 2d 248 (1975); State v. Ward, 293 Ala. 516, 306 So. 2d 265 (1975); State v. Hines, 293 Ala. 509, 306 So. 2d 259 (1975); State v. Dunlap, 279 Ala. 418, 186 So. 2d 132 (1966). I think the rule was logical and sound. Together with many other justices on this Court, I have written, or concurred in, opinions, which have followed the rule.
JONES, J., concurs.