Opinion ID: 1166970
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether the Judgment for Parcels Four and Seven was Against the Substantial Weight of the Evidence[12]

Text: The state admits that it bears a heavy burden in contending that the trial court erred in its determination of just compensation for the above parcels. The burden is especially heavy with respect to condemnation proceedings, where considerable latitude must be accorded the trier of fact due to the complicated nature of property appraisals. [13] The length of the record and the disagreement among different appraisers over the value of the properties in this case bear this out. The state nevertheless proceeds with two corollary arguments as to why the judgment was against the substantial weight of the evidence, neither of which is persuasive. The state first of all complains that certain expert witnesses were allowed to remain in the courtroom and listen to testimony by other witnesses, despite the state's request that the court invoke the exclusionary rule. [14] The state goes on to assert that the presence of these witnesses in the courtroom had a tangible prejudicial effect upon the state's case, in that one of these witnesses, Mr. McCracken, persuaded the court to adopt his opinion as to prepaid assessments for utilities while not under oath, despite the court's ruling that his appraisal testimony would not be considered as evidence. The state also alleges prejudice from the court's reliance in its judgment upon another expert, Richard Follett, who allegedly changed his testimony in the course of the trial after listening to the testimony of other expert witnesses. The state, however, waived any objection it had to these experts being present in the courtroom by explicitly agreeing to that procedure at trial. [15] Furthermore, if any error occurred, which we doubt given the discretion accorded the trial court in such matters, [16] it was harmless in our opinion. The state has not shown that McCracken's statements to the court or Follett's change in testimony affected the final judgment as to parcels four and seven in any prejudicial way. McCracken's statements to the court were to the effect that transfer of prepaid utility assessments from the taken parcels to other parcels did not eliminate all the value to the taken parcels from the nearby availability of sewer and other utilities, but only reduced the value of the parcels by the cost of installing the utilities. [17] The state admits that utilities were available to all of the parcels, and that the court did not consider value attributable to prepaid assessments in its final opinion. It is the lack of weight given to access value in the court's conclusions which the state criticizes, but the state never relates this criticism to McCracken's discussion with the court over utilities. As to Follett, he admitted at trial that he had not considered damage to parcel seven from loss of river frontage and said that if he were doing it over, he would change his appraisal, without specifying a greater estimate. Follett's testimony indicates that his opinion may have changed due to hearing other testimony at trial. The court accepted Follett's computation for value per acre for parcel four and his estimate for the damage to the remainder of parcel seven in its opinion. But these figures were contained in Follett's written appraisal prepared prior to any change in his testimony at trial. [18] The state's second argument is that the court failed to consider letters of valuation by a witness named Bruce Street, a local appraiser. Street had been hired by the landowners to substantiate values of lands which included the subject parcels, for the purposes of a proposed stock transfer between the landowner corporations. These letters of valuation state that they are not to be considered formal appraisals, but are determinations of fair market value based on the best information available. They were prepared in the spring of 1972, about a year prior to the date of taking for parcels four and seven. They appear to consider, to varying degrees, value enhancement from the Parks Highway and Geist extension projects, and value the lands at between $6,000 and $8,000 per acre. These values are approximately the same as the highest appraisals submitted by the state for parcels four and seven. Mr. Street also testified at trial that the letters were to justify values being claimed by the landowners in this stock transaction, and that the valuations did not ignore the influence of the planned projects, but also did not consider them as substantial factors in creating the value of the land. Since the stock transfer eventually took place, the state characterizes Street's opinions as evidence of the value of the parcels in a market transaction. The state contends that the court apparently totally ignored Street's opinion in reaching its final judgment. But the state provides no basis for this conclusion other than the divergence in Street's values from other appraisals performed for the landowners. Besides the condemnation appraisals and other evidence which supports the superior court's judgment, appraisals conducted in the fall of 1973 for another proposed stock exchange in which the landowner corporations were involved were submitted in evidence. These appraisals assign values in the range of $25,000-$35,000 per acre for the subject lands, considerably higher than the values awarded by the court. We therefore cannot agree with the state that the superior court failed to give any weight to the evidence from Street. Reviewing the totality of the evidence before the superior court, we conclude that the judgment as to parcels four and seven is supported by the substantial weight of the evidence. [19] Of the appraisals and testimony of the expert appraisal witnesses presented by the landowners, the court chose the lowest appraisal submitted for each parcel.