Court Opinion

ID: 9707027
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:59:11.654115+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:27.164820
License: Public Domain

*87Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Cohen :
This appeal involves the resolution of one issue: Did the court below abuse its discretion by refusing the Commonwealth’s motion for a new trial on the basis that the verdict returned by the jury was clearly excessive and not in accordance with the weight of the evidence? The majority concludes that no such abuse of discretion was committed. I disagree.
The record indicates that the owner’s expert witness, after carefully considering all possible compensable damages, testified that in his opinion the condemnee’s damages amounted to $19,000. The Commonwealth’s expert witness, after taking the same elements into consideration, concluded that damages were in the amount of $8,650. The property owner testified that his damages were in the amount of $35,000 and the jury returned a verdict in the amount of $25,583.33. Although not part of the record evidence, the board of viewers awarded damages in the amount of $13,000, which award is certainly a factor to be considered in determining the excessiveness of the verdict. See Mazur v. Commonwealth, 390 Pa. 148, 134 A. 2d 669 (1957).
In Lenik Condemnation Case, 404 Pa. 257, 172 A. 2d 316 (1961), we indicated that the testimony of a property owner with respect to damages, while competent, must be closely scrutinized because of his interest and lack of experience. Here we are confronted with a situation wherein the property owner’s valuation of his damages was four times the amount of damages testified to by the Commonwealth’s expert witness; almost three times the award made by the board of viewers, and almost twice the damages testified to by his own expert witness. Under these circumstances, the property owner’s testimony should be afforded little weight, if any, in considering whether or not the jury verdict was against the weight of the evidence. Since *88the verdict of $25,583.33 was twice the amount awarded by the board of viewers, and clearly in excess of all the expert valuation, including the property owner’s own expert witness, I would conclude that the court below abused its discretion in refusing the Commonwealth’s motion for a new trial. The wide disparity in the damages fixed by the various witnesses, especially the disparity between the experts’ and the property owner’s testimony, leads irresistably to the conclusion that the verdict of $25,583.33 was a figure arrived at by the jury without rationally considering all of the testimony adduced.
I dissent.
Mr. Justice O’Brien joins in this dissenting opinion.