Opinion ID: 2405402
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: trial of all issues together where leased property is involved

Text: Turning now to another question, the Commonwealth maintains that in cases involving condemnation of leased property the issues between the Commonwealth on the one side and the landowner and lessee on the other side should be confined to the determination of damages to the land as a whole, without regard to any allocation between the landlord and tenant, and that the allocation should be tried separately and later (perhaps before the same jury). There was a motion to that end in this case, which was overruled. We are inclined to agree with the Commonwealth's argument that under the method formerly in use for determining compensation for leased property the Commonwealth was placed in a prejudicial position, mainly because the method operated in practice in such a way as to enable the combined awards to the landlord and tenant to exceed the total damage to the property as a whole. But we are of the opinion that under the new formula here prescribed there is little danger of prejudice to the Commonwealth from trying all of the issues together, because the major fact determinations will relate to value of the property as a whole, before and after the taking, and the allocation between landlord and tenant will be mainly a matter of mathematical computation by the court.