Opinion ID: 357119
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Landowners' Expert Testimony

Text: 13 We would not be inclined to remand for a new trial on this ground alone, however, had the lower court admitted the landowner's evidence of value based on the development of home sites along the road at the front of the Cook's farm. The district judge properly excluded evidence that the whole farm or a substantial portion of it could be subdivided in the near future. The landowner offered no credible evidence of any current demand or potential for subdivisions in the neighborhood of the Cook's farm, and there was no credible evidence concerning the costs of subdividing the property or evidence that the Cooks had a plan to subdivide it. But the landowner did show that there was a growing demand for strip development along rural roads in the county. The Cooks had sold off one lot for this purpose themselves on another farm they owned nearby, and a number of farmers in the community were selling off lots for this purpose. 14 There was sufficient evidence to support a finding by the jury that the property is adaptable and needed or likely to be needed in the reasonably near future for home site development along the road. The quoted language is part of the test of admissibility applied in Olson v. United States, 292 U.S. 246, 255-56, 54 S.Ct. 704, 708-709, 78 L.Ed. 1236 (1934), United States v. 1,291.83 Acres of Land, 411 F.2d 1081, 1086 (6th Cir., 1969), and in analogous cases. Admissibility does not hinge on a finding of substantial current demand, the test which the District Court seems to have applied. 15