Opinion ID: 2588470
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did the District Court Apply the Proper Measure of Damages?

Text: The measure of damages used by the district court was the reasonable cost of repairing the Kennedy Lateral. It found that the piping of the Lateral was the most expedient and cost effective manner to repair it so that it would transport water during the upcoming irrigation season. The Mussells contend that the district court used the wrong measure of damages. The measure of damages for injury to land as stated by this Court in Young v. Extension Ditch Co., 13 Idaho 174, 182, 89 P. 296, 298 (1907), is as follows: If land is taken or the value thereof totally destroyed, the owner is entitled to recover the actual cash value of the land at the time of the taking or destruction, with legal interest thereon to the time of the trial. If the land is permanently injured, but not totally destroyed, the owner will be entitled to recover the difference between the actual cash value at a time immediately preceding the injury and the actual cash value of the land in the condition it was immediately after the injury, with legal interest thereon to the time of the trial. If the land is temporarily but not permanently injured, the owner is entitled to recover the amount necessary to repair the injury and put the land in the condition it was at the time immediately preceding the injury, with legal interest thereon to the time of the trial. In Alesko v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 62 Idaho 235, 241, 109 P.2d 874, 877 (1941), we added: Even though the injury be only temporary if the cost of restoration exceeds the value of the premises in their original condition, or the diminution in market value the latter are the limits of recovery. In Alesko we also defined a temporary injury as follows: [I]f the cause of the injury is abatable or preventable and the injury capable of rectification by reasonable restoration, i.e., not exceeding the damage to the property, the injury will be considered temporary and not permanent. 62 Idaho at 240, 109 P.2d at 876. The Mussells contend that the damages awarded by the district court exceed the diminution in value of the section of the Kennedy Lateral at issue. The Mussells did not offer any evidence showing either the market value of the District's easement along the Mussells' property or the diminution in that value caused by the excavation. Because the goal of the law of compensatory damages is reimbursement of the plaintiff for the actual loss suffered, the rule precluding recovery of restoration costs in excess of the diminution in value is not of invariable application. Orndorff v. Christiana Cmty. Builders, 217 Cal. App.3d 683, 266 Cal.Rptr. 193 (Ct.App.1990); Board of County Comm'rs v. Slovek, 723 P.2d 1309 (Colo.1986); 22 AM. JUR.2d Damages § 402 (1988). The portion of the Kennedy Lateral at issue has value only because of its ability to transmit water as part of the District's larger water distribution system. The easement has no other purpose. The cost of repairing or restoring the Lateral is a more appropriate measure of damages than is the decrease in the market value of the easement. The easement across the Mussells' property would not normally be sold on the open market because it has no utility except as part of the larger water distribution system. Considering that it is part of a system that provides water to approximately 3,000 acres, most of which are downstream from this section of the Kennedy Lateral, awarding damages based upon the cost of restoring or repairing the Lateral so that it can transmit water would neither be a windfall to the District nor result in economic waste. Therefore, we hold that the district court did not err in utilizing the cost of repairing the Lateral as the measure of damages.