2023 Delaware Code › Title 10 - Courts and Judicial Procedure › Chapter 61. CONDEMNATION › § 6108. Trial; choice of commissioners; viewing property.

§ 6108. Trial; choice of commissioners; viewing property.
(a) After the time has expired for answering a complaint under this chapter, and all preliminary questions of law disposed of, the cause shall be placed upon the regular trial calendar of the Superior Court for trial.
(b) Prior to the trial date the Court shall submit to the appearing parties a list of 11 proposed commissioners, who are impartial, disinterested and judicious citizens of the county where the real property is situated or the personal property is found, showing their full names and addresses. Thereafter, at a place and time designated by the Court, the plaintiff or plaintiffs shall (jointly, if more than 1), strike out 1 of the names, and then the defendant or defendants shall (jointly, if more than 1) strike out another, and so on until 8 names have been stricken out. If the plaintiff or plaintiffs or the defendant or defendants refuse to strike or do not attend the striking or cannot agree among themselves, then the Court or the prothonotary or the prothonotary's deputy, if designated by the Court, shall strike, for the party or parties refusing to strike, to attend, or who cannot agree among themselves. After the opposing parties have stricken 8 names, the remaining 3 shall be the commissioners for the cause and the prothonotary shall thereupon deliver to the sheriff a certified list of the names of the 3 commissioners, with their addresses annexed to a writ commanding the sheriff to summon the 3 named persons as commissioners to attend the Superior Court for trial at a time fixed by the Court. The sheriff shall, thereupon, summon them according to the command of the writ and shall return the list with the writ.
(c) At the trial of the cause and before entering upon their duties, the 3 commissioners shall be sworn or affirmed faithfully and impartially to perform the duties assigned to them.
(d) The Court, in its discretion, may determine whether or not the commissioners shall view the premises and if a view is ordered shall designate the time therefor. The view, if ordered, shall be conducted under the supervision of the Court by the court bailiffs and the view shall not be considered as evidence but only for the purpose of better understanding the evidence presented at the trial, nor shall any testimony be taken at the view. This restraint shall not prevent the parties from designating and identifying the property during the view.
(e) At the trial any party may present competent and relevant evidence upon the issue of just compensation and all such evidence shall be given in the presence of the Court and the commissioners. The Court shall, during the course of the trial, determine all questions of law and the admissibility of all evidence. A religious corporation or religious body of this State as a party to a condemnation proceeding may present as competent or relevant testimony upon the issue of just compensation the reasonable costs as of the date of the taking of the church property, of erecting a new structure of substantially the same size and of comparable character and quality of construction as the acquired church structure, at some other suitable and comparable location to be provided by such religious corporation or body. The admissibility of such evidence is conditioned upon the religious corporation or religious body being a duly constituted legal corporation or body and using the acquired site as a church or place of religious worship; and upon the further condition that the new structure or building to be erected for religious worship shall be located within the county of this State in which the acquired site is located at the time of the taking of possession of said acquired site.
(f) If 1 of the 3 commissioners becomes incapacitated during the course of the trial, the remaining 2 shall have power to make the factual determination of just compensation.
(g) After all evidence is presented and the commissioners have been charged by the Court with the applicable law, they shall retire and in secret arrive at a determination of the amount to be awarded as just compensation for the respective parties in interest, and thereafter announce their awards in open court. Such awards shall be confirmed by the Court unless the commissioners have been guilty of misconduct in their proceedings, or unless they have made an improper award to any party in interest, whether based upon an error of fact or law, in which events the Court may, upon its own motion, or motion of any party filed and served within 5 days of the award, set aside the erroneous award in whole or in part, or modify it to conform to the facts as presented by the evidence, or to conform it with the law as announced by the Court. In the event the award is set aside in whole or in part, the Court may, in its discretion, recommit it to the commissioners with instructions.
(h) The final award, as confirmed or modified, may be reviewed by the Supreme Court as provided in this chapter.
(i) The prothonotary shall record the final award in a special docket to be maintained for that purpose.
48 Del. Laws, c. 271, §  8;  10 Del. C. 1953, §  6108;  52 Del. Laws, c. 340;  56 Del. Laws, c. 406;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1;