Court Opinion

ID: 9849257
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:37:14.230418+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:10.772552
License: Public Domain

Sognier, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s opinion affirming the judgment below and would reverse this case on the bases that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony about consequential benefits to appellants’ remaining property and that the trial court improperly allowed a witness to give a legal conclusion to questions posed to him by counsel for appellee.
“The law is clear that consequential benefits to remaining lands may be shown only as an offset against consequential damages and that they may not be used as an offset against the value of the land actually taken. [Cits.]” Merritt v. Dept. of Transp., 147 Ga. App. 316, 317 (1) (248 SE2d 689) (1978). At the beginning of the trial, appellants stipulated clearly and unequivocally that benefits to the remainder equalled or exceeded consequential damages to the property and therefore that they were not seeking compensation for consequential damages. During the course of the trial, appellee presented two expert witnesses who testified on the question of value. John Buckner testified that consequential damages to the property totalled $70,475 and that consequential benefits to the remainder after taking amounted to $519,922. Richard Lawrence gave no total for consequential damages but testified when first asked whether there were any consequential damages or benefits to the property that there was a “substantial net benefit.” Appellee’s counsel next asked, “[w]ould that be greater or less than any potential consequential damage?” Lawrence replied, “Much greater.” Appellee’s counsel then asked Lawrence specifically to give a value to the remainder after taking. In reply Lawrence stated the sum of $1,500,000. Appropriate objections were made.
The majority holds that the trial court’s charge to the jury on the issue of consequential benefits and damages was sufficient to erase the prejudicial effect on the jury of testimony which informed the jury that appellants were benefitting by $519,922 and $1,500,000, respectively, from appellee’s taking. In Merritt, supra, this court upheld the admission of evidence on consequential benefits only after noting that “the trial judge was scrupulous to prevent any witness from attaching a monetary value to this benefit,” that the jury was “instructed unambiguously” on the law involving this issue, and that the evidence *586in controversy was relevant to various other matters. Id. at 317. It was “[f]or these reasons” the Merritt court held that the trial court did not err by allowing the evidence on consequential benefits, “despite its tendency to show that the remainders were benefited by some unspecified amount.” Id. In a case such as the one sub judice where the trial court permitted witnesses to attach specific monetary values to the benefits accruing to appellants’ remaining property and where there is no comparable relevance to the objected to testimony, I cannot agree with the majority that a correct jury charge on the issue is sufficient under Merritt, supra, to offset the prejudicial effect of that testimony on the jury.
Decided July 15, 1985
Rehearing denied July 31, 1985
Frank Love, Jr., for appellants.
Charles N. Pursley, Jr., for appellee.
Further, I disagree with that part of the majority’s opinion holding that no reversible error was committed by the admission of testimony by witness Carter in response to appellee’s counsel’s questions involving a third party’s obligation under a contract for sale of appellants’ property. As a general rule, a witness may not state a conclusion of law. Gage v. Tiffin Motor Homes, 153 Ga. App. 704, 707 (2) (266 SE2d 345) (1980); see also Gellis v. B.L.I. Constr. Co., 148 Ga. App. 527, 540 (5) (251 SE2d 800) (1978). Without belaboring the point, my review of the transcript discloses that the questions posed by appellee’s counsel elicited legal conclusions from the witness, that timely objection was made by appellants’ counsel, and that the trial court’s response constituted a final ruling on this matter. Therefore, I would reverse the judgment of the court below.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Banke, Presiding Judge Deen and Presiding Judge Birdsong join in this dissent.