Opinion ID: 1485182
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Whether the Court erred in refusing to give additional instructions to the jury requested by the defendant.

Text: M.R.C.P. Rule 51 provides for the presentation and disposition of requested instructions. The Rule states in part: No party may assign as error the giving or the failure to give an instruction unless he objects thereto before the jury retires to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter to which he objects and the grounds of his objection. At the close of the evidence the defendant presented four unnumbered instructions dealing generally with the use of the so-called multiplication method of arriving at value and with the proper use of comparable sales, market value and the like. The presiding Justice fully and correctly charged the jury that the test was not the fair market value of the stumpage but rather the fair market value of the land enhanced by the presence of timber thereon. He eliminated the multiplication method as a direct means of determining the fair market value of the land either before or after the taking. He left it to the jury to determine whether or to what extent the value of the land was enhanced by stumpage. After these instructions had been given and before the jury retired, the defendant offered only one objection in conformity with Rule 51. This objection related, not to the matter covered by the requested instructions, but to an instruction relating to non-access. Since the points of appeal relating to access have been expressly withdrawn and abandoned, no point relating to instructions is properly before us. We may fairly assume that defendant treated the instructions given as substantially and accurately stating the law with respect to the subject matter of its requested instructions. The entry will be Appeal denied.