Opinion ID: 1741655
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The jury must return separate verdicts for damages resulting from taking the fee and damages resulting from taking temporary easements.

Text: Appellant cites a single authorityJackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1963). This landmark criminal case held that the voluntary nature of Jackson's confession should be determined prior to the admission of the confession to the jury adjudicating guilt or innocence. We fail to see the applicability of that decision to this case. Appellant did not ask for separate verdicts. No objection was made to the use of general verdict forms. In fact, under the circumstances it would not have been appropriate to submit separate verdict forms covering the temporary easements. This is true because in evaluating damages the landowners' witnesses combined the easement acreage with the fee simple title acreage. In other words, they treated the easement acreage as a taking in fee. No witness gave the jury a separate opinion as to just compensation for the temporary construction easements. Affirmed.