Court Opinion

ID: 9578906
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:49:34.303849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:32.175770
License: Public Domain

Carley, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent to Division 1 of the majority opinion and to the affirmance of the judgment in this case. In my opinion, the trial court erred in admitting the opinion testimony of the condemnees’ witness and that erroneous evidentiary ruling requires the reversal of the judgment.
In Jackson v. Delk, 257 Ga. 541, 543 (2) (361 SE2d 370) (1987), the Supreme Court held that “the trial court erred in requiring the county commissioners to submit to deposition questioning concerning their individual intentions with respect to the board’s rezoning decision.” I do not construe the Supreme Court’s holding as narrowly as the majority does and, in my opinion, those individuals who had actually denied the condemnees’ application for a permit would not themselves be allowed to testify as to their “individual intentions” in so doing. It therefore seems clear to me that the condemnees’ witness should not have been allowed to give his opinion as to the “collective” intentions which underlay the decision of those individuals to deny the permit. See Southern R. Co. v. A. O. Smith Corp., 134 Ga. App. 219, 221 (2) (213 SE2d 903) (1975).
The condemnees’ witness may have been qualified as an expert. However, he was certainly not qualified to give an inadmissible opinion. I believe that he was erroneously allowed to do just that over the condemnor’s objection, and that the majority has sanctioned that error by failing so to hold. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen and Presiding Judge Banke join in this dissent.