Opinion ID: 2012048
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plaintiff's Real Estate

Text: The plaintiff's real estate abuts the northerly line of the boulevard. The property consisted of a 6,000-square-foot parcel of land with two buildings on it; one was a two-story building with a furniture store on the ground floor and professional offices above; the other was a three-tenement house attached to the store building. The plaintiff's property is only a short distance from the property involved in Sullivan, supra. It fronts only on the boulevard, being situated approximately in the center of the block, with but one abutter on each side between it and the two side streets. Similarly, behind or to the north, there is one abutter between plaintiff's property and the street to the north of said abutter's property. Although the condemnation included the boulevard up to plaintiff's lot line, it is admitted that no actual part of her land was taken. But the condemnation left her property without access to any public highway, since it bordered on no other street. The plaintiff based her claim for damages on the ground that the taking of the boulevard deprived her property of all access to the boulevard and left it without access to any public highway. The narrow question presented for determination by the trial justice related to the damages, if any, suffered by plaintiff's property as a result of its loss of access to the boulevard. At the commencement of the trial, the trial justice granted defendant's motion to file an answer and a counterclaim. The counterclaim alleges that if the trial justice should enter a decision awarding damages to plaintiff plus interest from January 20, 1964, plaintiff should pay to defendant a reasonable amount for use and occupancy of the premises from that date to the date of the payment of damages which may be awarded plaintiff. The plaintiff interposed no objections to the filing of the counterclaim, but reserved the right to object to the same upon the merits and expressly stated that she would challenge the constitutionality of the pertinent portion of G.L. 1956, § 37-6-23, as amended, upon which defendant relied. In reply to defendant's counterclaim, plaintiff filed an answer denying defendant's right to the alleged counterclaim on the grounds that (1) there was no authority for the payment of rent for use and occupation of a public highway and (2) that defendant at no time acquired title to the premises owned by plaintiff. No evidence was introduced relative to the alleged value of plaintiff's use and occupation of the highway. The plaintiff's real estate expert, Paul W. Carter, testified that in his opinion the value of plaintiff's property before the taking was $64,500; that he considered access to the boulevard totally eliminated by the taking, thereby landlocking plaintiff's property; and that plaintiff's property had been reduced in value 75 per cent by loss of access, making the value after taking $16,400, for a difference of $48,100, the amount of damage which he estimated to be present. The defendant's real estate expert, Ralph A. Pari, testified that in his opinion the value of the property prior to condemnation was $60,000; that, assuming an actual loss of all access, it had lost 75 per cent of its value as a result of the taking, or a total of $45,000, the figure at which he put the damage. During the course of the trial defendant attempted to introduce certain evidence to establish that, at the time of the taking, plans were in existence and a contract had been let for the construction of a frontage road upon a portion of the boulevard and that the existence of such plans for a frontage road would affect the damages suffered by plaintiff. The trial justice excluded this evidence on the authority of our decision in Sullivan, supra. The defendant then made offers of proof under oath as to the testimony excluded by the trial justice. After the hearing, the trial justice rendered a written decision in which he carefully reviewed the evidence and examined in depth the law applicable to the issues raised by the parties. He commented favorably upon the testimony offered by the two real estate experts and on the basis of their testimony found that the damage suffered by plaintiff as the result of the loss of access from her property to the abutting highway was $46,500. In so doing, he made it clear that he was relying on our decision in Sullivan, supra. He ruled that plaintiff was entitled to interest on the award from the date of condemnation until the date of payment and that defendant was not entitled to anything on his counterclaim for use and occupancy because he had not complied with the statutory conditions precedent to the charging of rent for such purpose. Accordingly, he denied the counterclaim. The award was made subject to any adjustments which might possibly exist. A judgment in accordance with his decision was entered. The questions raised by this appeal relate (1) to the evidentiary rulings by the trial justice excluding testimony pertaining to an intention to construct a frontage road abutting plaintiff's property, (2) to the question of plaintiff's entitlement to interest and (3) to defendant's counterclaim for use and occupancy of the highway. The defendant has briefed and argued these questions under three main points and, for convenience, we shall treat them in like manner.