Court Opinion

ID: 9653263
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:42:17.317016+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:57.421101
License: Public Domain

PALMORE, Judge
(dissenting).
Relocation of U.S. Highway 23 (the mam highway through the Big Sandy Valley) from the west to the east side of the Big Sandy River naturally enhanced the value of the property fronting on the new right-of-way. The highway taking preceded the airport taking, and the condemning authorities were different, so it seems to me that there can be no question of the right of the landowners in this proceeding to be paid on the basis of the enhanced value. As the majority opinion says, the land in question is about half way between Prestonsburg and Paintsville. It also is near the entrance to Jenny Wiley State Park. Except for the Galbraith tract, the airport takes all the frontage and leaves the remainder parcels along the river bank with no access to the highway except by sufferance of the airport board (so far as the record indicates, there has been no conveyance of an access easement). Highly qualified expert witnesses testified that immediately prior to the airport taking all of this property was adaptable to and saleable for purposes of residential subdivision, with a market value from $3000 to $4000 per acre, and that the remainder portion lying between the airport and the river, now usable only for farming, is worth about $300 per acre. A 40-acre tract on which Prestonsburg Community College is located, on the north side of Prestonsburg, sold for $4,000 per acre. There simply is no basis on which I can conscientiously vote to exclude and disregard the testimony of those witnesses.
The Galbraith tract has not been cut off. It still has extensive frontage on the highway. Assuming that the other awards were not inadequate, there is reason to hold the Galbraith award excessive, and I concur in the result as to that particular tract. With respect to the others I must dissent.
MILLIKEN, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.