Court Opinion

ID: 9682209
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 08:07:42.86895+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:38.083772
License: Public Domain

STEAKLEY, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent and can state my views quite briefly. This Court in G.C. & S.F. Ry. Co. v. Fuller, 63 Tex. 467 (1885), early established the fair market value criterion in the determination of severance damages; and, later, in St. Louis, A. & T. Ry. Co. v. Henderson, 86 Tex. 307, 24 S.W. 381 (1893), stated that all damages, present and prospective, that are the natural, necessary or reasonable incident of the improvement constitute the compensation which our Constitution requires to be made in advance. We concluded in the latter case that severance damages are those which would naturally or necessarily flow from the taking and proper construction and operation of the improvement; and that other damages caused to the balance of the tract which may be known with reasonable certainty would be included. We reaffirmed in State v. Carpenter, 126 Tex. 604, 89 S.W.2d 194 (1936), that where a part of a tract of land has been taken for a public use, damages to the remainder tract are to be determined by ascertaining the difference between its market value immediately before and after the appropriation, The willing-seller willing-buyer test of market value is to be applied and those factors are to be considered which would reasonably be given weight in negotiations between a seller and a buyer. City of Austin v. Cannizzo, 153 Tex. 324, 267 S.W.2d 808 (1954). See City of Pearland v. Alexander, 483 S.W.2d 244 (Tex.1972).
The date of taking is thus firmly established as the critical date. Indeed, the majority acknowledges the force of these precedents while at the same time, illogically and inconsistently, I think, now holds admissible post-taking or hindsight evidence at the instance of the condemnee to enhance severance damages. It is apparent, of course, that henceforth such evidence will be just as admissible under the auspices of the condemnor to reduce severance damages. It is just as apparent that these actual happenings after the date of taking could not be known to the fictional willing buyer and seller in arriving at reasonable market value in a sale on the date of taking. The market value at that time could only be influenced by what they then knew or could reasonably foresee. This would include damages to the remainder that would reasonably flow from the proper construction of the improvement. City of *67Pearland and Henderson, supra. This was sought to be shown here by the evidence establishing the necessity for the dirt road across the lake in the construction of the pipeline; and by the testimony of Spindor that the damages to the lake that would result therefrom was discussed with Lo-Vaca in the pre-taking negotiations. The post-taking evidence under review should be ruled inadmissible under our established precedents.
I would affirm the reversal and remand ordered by the Court of Civil Appeals.