Opinion ID: 848629
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: the effect of the view of the land by the jury

Text: It bears noting that, contrary to the Court of Appeals dissent, plaintiff did not open the door to evidence of posttaking rezoning or render its admission harmless by requesting a jury view. Plaintiff filed its motion in limine opposing the evidence of subsequent rezoning on March 6, 2001. At a March 15 hearing, although the court did not rule, its language suggested that ultimately it would deny the motion. By March 28, the trial court had not ruled on the motion. Plaintiff feared that it would receive an adverse ruling. Therefore, it moved for a jury view. Plaintiff argues that it did so to provide some evidence that the property, most of which remained undeveloped at the time, was more akin to residential property than commercial property. Plaintiff asserted that it would have withdrawn the motion if, before the jury view, the court had announced its decision to exclude defendants' posttaking rezoning evidence. Plaintiff did not preclude appellate review by properly anticipating and attempting to mitigate the trial court's error. Moreover, the jury view did not render harmless the erroneous admission of the evidence of posttaking rezoning. There is no record evidence of what the jury saw when it viewed the property. It may have seen some commercial construction and inferred that part of the parcel had been rezoned. But I agree with plaintiff that the jury view was not the equivalent of uncontroverted evidence that the entire parcel had been rezoned.