Court Opinion

ID: 9725909
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:19:52.223774+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:20.848041
License: Public Domain

DARDEN, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the State’s motion to withdraw its exceptions.
However, I respectfully disagree with the majority’s conclusion approving the method used for determining the compensation due to the Bishops for the property condemned by the State. I find no error per se in the use of a capitalization of income method to determine fair market value in a condemnation case. However, I cannot agree with its use in this case. In determining the proper compensation due to a landowner from whom the State has appropriated land for a highway project, the fair market value is calculated as of “the date of the appropriation.” State v. Maplewood Heights Corp., 261 Ind. 305, 302 N.E.2d 782, 785 (1973). Undisputably, that date here was December 6, 1996. According to the State, on December 6, 1996, not a single one of the four billboard structures on the appropriated land was being leased or exhibited any advertisement.25 Apparently these billboards had not generated income for several years. Therefore, I find use of the capitalization method to be inappropriate here, where it was used to capitalize billboards that lacked an ongoing business record at the time of the appropriation. See J.J. Newberry Co. v. City of East Chicago, 441 N.E.2d 39, 43 (Ind.Ct.App.1982) (where business not being operated “as a going concern” at the time of the condemnation, capitalization of income method is “too speculative” to compute the fair market of the property). Further, the inappropriate use of the capitalization method here is compounded by the use of a capitalization date of 1998. The result, in my opinion, was a value for compensation that constituted a windfall to the property owners and an unfair expenditure of taxpayer dollars.
I further believe that the trial court erred when it disallowed evidence of the “cost to cure,” whereby the fair market value of the real estate appropriated would have included the cost of moving the billboards to land retained by the Bishops. The majority notes certain deficiencies in the State’s advocacy that led to the fact the jury did not learn about the continued use of the billboards. Legal strategy aside, I cannot overlook the fact that the Bishops did not lose their four billboards; *353they lost one, and the other three were moved. In my opinion, the State’s obligation to compensate landowners for property taken for public use does not include compensation for property that the landowners did not lose. Accordingly, I dissent as to Issue II and Issue III and would reverse the judgment of the trial court and order a new trial.

. The Bishops concede that "for a number of years prior to the taking, space on the struc-lures were not rented." Bishops' Br. at 8.