Court Opinion

ID: 9719258
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:46:43.721232+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:05.510481
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Cohen:
While a party whose property has been condemned may introduce evidence to show the highest and best use of his land, and the jury can consider this use in arriving at damages, Gilleland v. New York State Natural Gas Corporation, 399 Pa. 181, 159 A. 2d 673 (1960), an unrecorded plot plan showing a contemplated sub-division of the condemned tract is not properly admissible in evidence to determine damages for the taking.
Only last year we held that it was reversible error for a court to admit in evidence original and revised *383plans of lots which permitted the jury to know the difference in the number of lots before and after condemnation of the land. E. M. Kerstetter, Inc. v. Commonwealth, 404 Pa. 168, 171 A. 2d 163 (1961).
In Kerstetter we applied the rule first stated in Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley Railroad Co. v. Cleary, 125 Pa. 442, 17 Atl. 468 (1889), that it is improper to admit evidence showing how many building lots the tract under consideration could be divided into, and what the lots would be worth separately. Moreover, the jury is to value only the tract of land, and is not to determine how it could best be divided into building lots, nor conjecture how fast they could be sold, nor at what price per lot.
The unrecorded plot plan was merely a self-serving paper hastily produced at a cost of $25 for the purpose of establishing higher damages at a future condemnation proceeding. It is simply a sketch of the condemned tract on which a number of rectangles are outlined. The plan contains no topographical data showing the terrain or configuration of the land which would indicate that the proposed use could possibly be effectuated. Similarly, there is no indication on the plan of sewage, drainage or other necessary facilities, nor do we know if the land is susceptible to the installation of such improvements. All the plan represents is an embryonic expression of the appellees’ wishful thinking, and has no probative worth in establishing the value of the tract.
■ Consequently, even though the court below attempted by its instructions to limit the purposes for which the jury could consider its plan, its admissibility in evidence could serve only to confuse the jury. We are compounding the error in affirming this result.
I dissent.
.-Mr. Justice Benjamin B. Jones joins in this dissenting opinion.