Court Opinion

ID: 9854246
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:03:55.997636+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:59.678053
License: Public Domain

HALLEY, C.J.
(dissenting). On November 21, 1951, J. A. Patterson, one of the commissioners in” this condemnation proceeding, fixed the value of the surface on the south 19.55 acres of the west half of the southeast ■ quarter of 9-14-3E of Lincoln county together with a temporary construction easement on 0.11 acres at $5,000. This amount was outrageously high due to the fact that the land taken was badly eroded blackjack timber upland. It could only be used as pasture land and was a very *580poor quality for that. The Turnpike Authority was not satisfied with the report and demanded a jury and quite properly so. The landowner offered J. A. Patterson as a witness as to the value of the land at the jury trial on the 18th of March, 1952. At this trial, he fixed the value of the land at $10,000. Counsel for the plaintiff Authority of necessity cross-examined him as to the discrepancy between his testimony at the trial and the appraisement he made less than five months before. He was careful, however, not to bring out that Mr. Patterson was one of the commissioners in this case. On re-direct examination counsel for defendant asked Patterson the point blank question if he was not one of the commissioners in this case and received an affirmative answer. This was error and reversible error. St. Louis, El Reno & Western Railroad v. Oliver, 17 Okla. 589, 87 P. 423, 10 Ann. Cas. 1048, and Wichita Falls & N.W. Ry. Co. v. Munsell, 38 Okla. 253, 132 P. 906, lay down the rule that on appeal from the award of the commissioners to the district court in a condemnation proceeding, the award made by the commission is not competent evidence to go to the jury and was prejudicial and a new trial should be granted when such is done.
The majority opinion says that plaintiff’s counsel injected this incompetent evidence in this case.- With this I cannot agree and submit that defendant’s counsel would not have asked the question on re-direct examination if he had thought the jury was definitely informed that Patterson was a commissioner and that the commissioners’ award was $5,000. Defendant put Patterson on the stand and plaintiff’s counsel had to cross-examine him. To say the plaintiff had to cross-examine Patterson at the risk of having it .brought out that he was a commissioner and what the commissioners’ award was is unfair. This is especially true where everyone who knows anything about the value of this eroded black-jack upland in Lincoln county would not fix a value of $280 an acre on the surface only. There are thousands of acres of better pasture land selling in Oklahoma from $25 to $50 an acre.
The role of condemnor is ordinarily difficult but is entitled to a fair trial. If it had been intended by our lawmakers that condemnors pay a premium on the land they take by condemnation proceedings they certainly would have said so.
This case should have been reversed for a new trial. I dissent.