Court Opinion

ID: 9596268
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:47:45.257432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:34.418924
License: Public Domain

Jordan, Presiding Judge,
dissenting. I do not construe City of Gainesville v. Loggins, 224 Ga. 114, supra, as requiring a judgment of dismissal in this case.
The record is clear that the award of the special master in the amount of $3,500 was paid into court by the condemnor pending an appeal by the condemnee to a jury trial in the superior court. Upon this trial the condemnee was awarded $6,500 as just and adequate compensation for her property, and from an order overruling its motion for a new trial the condemnor appealed to this court on March 29, 1968. Before a judgment was entered on the jury verdict in the amount of $6,500 the condemnor on April 24, 1968, paid into the registry of the court the difference between the special master’s award and the amount of the jury verdict. Thus, at the time this appeal is pending in this court the full *31amount of the award has been deposited in the registry of the trial court, even though no judgment has been taken against the condemnor for this amount.
The language used in City of Gainesville v. Loggins, supra, clearly indicates that the condemnor has met the requirements of the Constitution in this case, for as was stated on page 117, “However, where the appeal is from a jury verdict and judgment based thereon for an amount in excess of the original award, and the judgment directs to whom the payment is to be made, then the payment or tender to the condemnee in accordance with such judgment is mandatory under the requirement of the Constitution that just and adequate compensation be first paid.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Since the full amount of the jury verdict has been paid into court and is available to the condemnee upon a judgment being entered thereon, the condemnee has incurred no possible harm and this appeal should not be dismissed.