Opinion ID: 1166970
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Whether the Award for Parcel One Was Contrary to the Evidence

Text: The landowners raise this issue on cross-appeal. Their motion to reconsider the monetary award for parcel one under Civil Rule 77 was denied by the superior court. The landowners complain that the monetary award of $20,000 for this parcel is inconsistent with the court's finding of fact that the highest and best use for the parcel was commercial, since the only evidence submitted which appraised the property as purely commercial placed its value at a much higher figure. [20] We find no error in the denial of the motion. A trial court's decision on a motion to reconsider its judgment will be reversed on appeal for an abuse of discretion, only if this court is left with a definite and firm conviction from the whole record that the trial judge has made a mistake. Brown v. State, 563 P.2d 275, 279 (Alaska 1977). The superior court's award for parcel one is equivalent to about $25,250 per acre. This is over $7,000 per acre higher than its award for parcel four (taken from the same tract), which the court concluded had some commercial as well as multi-family residential potential. It is over $10,000 per acre greater than the award for parcel seven, which the court concluded was suitable for multi-family residential use alone. The court noted in its opinion the wide divergence between the appraisals submitted by the state and those submitted by the landowners: There is considerable variance in the opinions of the appraisers. The opinions on Parcel 1 range from Mr. Dirksen's $13,455.00 to Mr. Follett's $35,000.00. Mr. King is also low on Parcel 4, estimating a value of $10,750.00, while Mr. Yerkes concludes that $187,353.00 is fair. The ranges on Parcel 7 run from $39,500.00 (King) to $302,000.00 (Follett). The other values fall somewhere in between, with the appraisers who testified on behalf of the State generally being low, and the appraisers who testified on behalf of the Defendants generally being high. The court stated that it made its award for parcel one after [c]onsidering all the testimony which has been presented with regard to Parcel 1. That the court accepted one appraiser's opinion regarding highest and best use, yet rejected his estimate of value for that use, or that no value equivalent to that awarded by the court was contained in the testimony of any single witness, does not convince us that the award was clearly mistaken. The testimony and other evidence in this case are sufficiently complex and contradictory to allow the trial court to balance and weigh all the evidence to reach its judgment rather than choosing between accepting and rejecting the different value figures contained in each appraisal to arrive at an award.