Court Opinion

ID: 9632832
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:26:01.765925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:23.074828
License: Public Domain

BERMAN, Judge,
dissenting:
Respectfully, I dissent. I am of the view that State Department of Highways v. Davis, 42 Colo.App. 250, 596 P.2d 400 (1979), is controlling here. Davis states that:
" '[T)here is a distinction ... to be noted between the assessment of compensation in the case of a taking and in the case of a damage where no land is taken. In the former case the mere fact that there has been a taking entitles the owner to recover for all damages to his remaining land, whether special or shared by the public generally, provided they flow from the taking, since he is constitutionally entitled to be made whole for all injuries resulting from the taking of his land > 99
Here, the owner was not allowed to present expert testimony in an effort to show that, among many factors, noise generated by highway construction and use impaired the market value of the remainder. This was error. See State Road Commission v. Rohan, 26 Utah 2d 202, 487 P.2d 857 (1971), where the court held similar expert testimony to be properly admitted. In Ro-han, the expert, in appraising decrease in the remainder's value, took into consideration the impact of traffic and noise from a new adjacent freeway, notwithstanding that an intangible factor such as noise could not properly constitute a separate item of damages.
I would reverse and remand for a new trial with directions to permit the above testimony.