Title: Mobile County v. Brantley
Citation: 507 So. 2d 483
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: April 24, 1987

507 So. 2d 483 (1987)
MOBILE COUNTY
v.
Elouise BRANTLEY, et al.
85-563.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
April 24, 1987.
*484 James C. Wood and J. Randall Crane of Simon, Wood &amp; Crane, Mobile, for appellant.
Samuel L. Stockman of Stockman &amp; Bedsole, Mobile, for appellees.
HOUSTON, Justice.
This is a condemnation case. Mobile County instituted proceedings to condemn.34 acres of Mrs. Elouise Brantley's property. Commissioners were appointed by the Mobile County Probate Court, and they assessed Mrs. Brantley's damages at $14,810. The County appealed to the circuit court, and the jury returned a verdict of $52,818.70 in favor of Mrs. Brantley. The County filed a motion for new trial or in the alternative for remittitur, which was denied. The amount of the verdict was within the range of expert appraisal testimony, and the question of excessiveness of the verdict is not raised as an issue in this appeal by the County. We affirm.
Mrs. Brantley owned approximately 3.5 acres at the southwest corner of Cottage Hill and Sollie Roads prior to the condemnation of the .34-acre tract involved in this proceeding. At the time this proceeding was filed, Sollie Road was a 3.5-mile dirt road running north and south. Cottage Hill Road was a paved road running east and west. Prior to this condemnation proceeding being filed, the County had on two occasions acquired land from Mrs. Brantley for a right-of-way of what is now Sollie Road (previously designated Dawes Hollow Road). A 30-foot-wide strip was acquired by deed in 1956. An additional 20-foot-wide strip was acquired by condemnation in 1957.
Mrs. Brantley testified over the County's objection that on several occasions in 1955 and 1956, the county negotiator, and the county engineer, as well as the county commissioners told her that the County was going to build a paved road on the right-of-way which it was acquiring from Mrs. Brantley and that this road would enhance the value of her remaining property. The County assigns as error the admission of this testimony.
These were out-of-court statements made by a party opponent; such statements are admissible when offered against the party making them. Southern Railway Co. v. City of Birmingham, 271 Ala. 114, 122 So. 2d 599 (1960); Mitchell v. Kinney, 242 Ala. 196, 5 So. 2d 788 (1942). Section 180.01(4) of C., Gamble, McElroy's Alabama Evidence, states:
In Southern Railway Co. v. City of Birmingham, supra, 271 Ala. at page 116, 122 So. 2d  at 601, we wrote:
The doctrine of admissions is also applicable where the principal is a county. Mrs. Brantley did not offer the county officials' statements to bind the County in a contractual sense, but for those statements to serve as a basis for an inference in regard to whether a paved road was planned at the time the statements were made.
There was other evidence offered which indicated that the County planned to pave Sollie Road within the County's previously acquired and existing right-of-way long prior to 1983, which was not objected to by the County (e.g., minutes of a 1961 commissioners' meeting indicating a plan to place the road on the farm to market road program; the minutes of a 1957 commissioners' meeting at which the county engineer was instructed to clear and grade the road within the right-of-way that had been acquired by the County; and testimony of a member of the road planning committee for the Chamber of Commerce and the Real Estate Board that it was his understanding that years before the present condemnation, the County was to pave and build Sollie Road and that he interpreted the major City Plan of Mobile to include Sollie Road).
There was also testimony that the real reason for the County's now condemning additional land from Mrs. Brantley was for the purpose of aligning Sollie Road and Cody Road at their intersection with Cottage Hill Road. Cody Road intersected Cottage Hill Road on the north side and Sollie road intersected Cottage Hill Road on the south side.
Based on the fact that the County did not receive funding to pave Sollie Road until 1983, the County contends that the "scope of-the-project rule," as enunciated in United States v. Miller, 317 U.S. 369, 63 S. Ct. 276, 87 L. Ed. 336 (1943), was not triggered until the County became "committed" to pave Sollie Road in 1983. United States v. 320 Acres of Land, More or Less in Monroe County, State of Fla., 605 F.2d 762 (5th Cir.1979). That being so, the County contends the trial judge erred in allowing Mrs. Brantley to show the "before" value of her property taken as enhanced by the paving of Sollie Road and in giving the following instruction to the jury:
Mrs. Brantley contends that she is entitled to have the "before" value of her property determined as if Sollie Road were paved. She further contends that the present taking of .34 acres was not contemplated by the original paving project for Sollie Road, and, therefore, that the valuation of her property is not subject to the general rule that owners of land taken by eminent domain are not entitled to the enhancement in the value of their property due to the proposed improvement. Standard Oil Co. v. State, 287 Ala. 143, 249 So. 2d 804 (1971); State Highway Commissioner v. Bell, 209 Va. 769, 167 S.E.2d 127 (1969); United States v. Miller, supra.
Both parties cite Miller as being the applicable law. "In Miller, the United *486 States Supreme Court set forth the principles to be applied in determining whether enhancement in the market value of a tract of land, occasioned by virtue of its proximity to the improvement to be constructed, is to be considered in awarding compensation."
Justice Roberts, writing for the United States Supreme Court, made the following observations:
United States v. Miller, 317 U.S.  at 376, 63 S. Ct.  at 283, as quoted in Standard Oil Co., 287 Ala. at 148, 249 So. 2d  at 809.
Justice Bloodworth, writing for this Court in Standard Oil Co., supra, stated "that the question as to whether the acquisition of these access rights was probably within the scope of the project is a factual issue which should have been resolved by the jury under proper instructions from the Court." 287 Ala. at 149, 249 So. 2d  at 809. We are of the opinion that the trial court properly submitted this question to the jury and properly instructed the jury on the principles enunciated in Miller.
The facts of this case, as set out earlier in this opinion, present a fact question for determination by the jury, as to whether the County planned to pave Sollie Road in the previously acquired and existing right-of-way before the 1983 paving project was instituted. There is evidence from which the jury could, and apparently did, find that the real reason for the present taking is to align Sollie Road and Cody Road at their intersection with Cottage Hill Road. The fact question as to whether the taking of .34 acres of Mrs. Brantley's property was "probably within the scope of the project" from the time the County was committed to it was properly resolved by the jury under proper instructions from the court.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, ALMON and BEATTY, JJ. concur.