Court Opinion

ID: 9666290
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:10:18.389525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:26.156305
License: Public Domain

MOREMEN, Chief Justice,
with whom MILLIKEN, Judge, joins (dissenting).
The authority of the Highway Department to condemn property is found in KRS 177.081 and subsequent sections. A portion of KRS 177.087 reads: “All questions of fact pertaining to the amount of compensation to the owner or owners shall be determined by a jury, which jury, on the application of either party, shall be sent by the court, in the charge of the sheriff, to view the land and material.” Most condemnation statutes contain such a provision.
Section 242 of the Constitution of Kentucky, which deals with the subject of the taking of private property for public use, provides in part, “the amount of such damages shall, in all cases, be determined by a jury, according to the course of the common law.” We have interpreted that section to mean that a jury must reach a unanimous verdict to have any effect, while in other cases, nine jurors may reach a proper verdict. Only in criminal cases and in condemnation cases are unanimous verdicts required. Evidently in our development of law these two important subjects have been considered to be peculiarly within the province of a jury. Primarily the exercise of the right of eminent domain is by or through the sovereignty of government in this country, so reliance has been had upon a jury to resist any misuse of that power. Other administrators of the law have been relegated to a secondary position.
The majority opinion implies a viewing of the premises by the jury serves an empty purpose, that they should be permitted to see only that which is explained by evidence given in court. In addition it seems to place a duty upon the trial court to warn them against the use of any facts which .they actually observed at the scene. We believe that the jury is sent to the premises to obtain information that has not been described in the evidence — that this is not a sight-seeing interlude where each juror must wear the restricting blinders of evi-dentiary legal rules.
It is suggested that the charge given by the trial court quoted in the opinion was substantially correct. He should not be charged with the unusual and perhaps impossible task of giving an instruction to negate any condition which under our rules has been held to be an improper factor in determining just compensation.
If it is true that a jury may look but cannot see, then we are forced to the recollection of the old quatrain which went something like this: “Mother, may I go out to swim? Yes, my darling daughter, hang your clothes on a hickory limb, but don’t go near the water.”
We therefore respectfully dissent.