Court Opinion

ID: 9629249
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:39:33.890018+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:17.167719
License: Public Domain

STEWART, Justice
(concurring and dissenting).
I concur in the conclusion that this case should be returned to the trial court for a redetermination of damages, but I do so on the ground that the present law was not properly applied by the trial court. The appellant, in my view, correctly contends that the trial court failed to comply with the law stated in State Road Comm. v. Williams and Prestwich, 22 Utah 2d 301, 452 P.2d 548 (1969); State Road Comm. v. Style-Crete, Inc., 20 Utah 2d 365, 438 P.2d 537 (1968). These cases hold that the cost of cure measure of severance damages is applicable only when the replacement property would totally cure the damage caused by the condemnation to that portion of land not condemned. The evidence in this case falls woefully short of showing that the condemnees were as well off with replacement land as with the land subject to the actual taking. Accordingly, the case should be remanded for a redetermination of damages, and that determination should be made without reliance upon “cost of cure.”
However, I cannot concur with that portion of Justice Maughan’s decision which would overrule the rule of law in Prestwich, supra, and Style-Crete, supra, and the other cases mentioned in his opinion. The contention that these cases should be overruled was not presented to the trial court and was not in any way argued by the parties before this Court. The appellant simply contended *494that existing law was improperly applied. The interpretation of the condemnation clause of the Constitution in Justice Mau-ghan’s scholarly opinion may be the better view; but I am not prepared to decide that issue until it has been presented to this Court in a proper adversary proceeding in which the State and a condemnee have had an opportunity to present whatever arguments they choose to present in support and against the existing line of cases. The issue has not been joined and the Court afforded the benefit of argument on the issue in this case. A cursory review by the State’s brief of the existing line of cases does not address the underlying validity vel non of that law.
I concur in all other aspects of Justice Maughan’s opinion.