Opinion ID: 194928
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Exclusion of Land Deeds

Text: 102 Cassiere challenges the court's exclusion of three land deeds that the defendant said supported his view of why the real estate values in question were reasonable. Cassiere testified that he relied on the prior deeds for sales in 1986 and 1987 in making his title examination for properties that were the subject of the indictment. Cassiere testified that he also relied on those deeds, which listed past sale prices, as indications of the value of the property at the time he conducted the title searches. 103 The court excluded these deeds on the ground of relevance [because] they're [sic] conveyance is too remote in time given, and I take judicial notice at the side bar of the ... marked decline in real estate values within the period of time and material to this lawsuit. The court allowed Cassiere to testify that these deeds formed the basis of his conclusion that the second sale prices in the land flips were justified. Since the deeds were for sales that occurred four to five years before those at issue in the case, and since the evidence was cumulative to Cassiere's testimony, the court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the deeds.