Court Opinion

ID: 9743353
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:31:31.258047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:40.708472
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GREEN, specially concurring: I concur in the decision of the majority to reverse and remand for a new trial because of error in the admission of the testimony of the witness, Newman. However, I deem the issues raised by that testimony to be closer than does the majority. I question whether error in the refusal to strike the testimony can be sufficiently explained by describing the testimony as valuing only the limestone reserves rather than the land as a whole. Certainly, Newman did not “appraise separately the mineral deposit and add its value to the value of the land without the deposits” (Oberlaender, 42 Ill. 2d at 415, 247 N.E.2d at 892), which is at the heart of the prohibitions set forth in more recent years in Oberlaender and Lotta. Rather, the majority concludes from the cross-examination of Newman that he valued only the minerals in the land and gave no consideration of the other attributes of the land. Such a valuation was deemed erroneous by the Oberlaender court in ruling upon the testimony of the witness Reese. Notably, under such circumstances, prejudice can result to the condemnor only to the extent a trier of fact might imply that some other value to the tract exists which should be added to the value to which the witness has testified. In any event, when the cross-examination of Newman is considered in the context of all of his testimony, I do not find that he gave a separate valuation to the limestone deposits or implied other values should be added to the value to which he testified. His method of appraisal began with the highly recommended procedure of comparing the tract to be appraised to another tract for which a recent arm’s length sale had taken place. (Quincy Coach House, Inc., 64 Ill. 2d 350, 356 N.E.2d 13.) Plaintiff does not dispute the comparability of this tract to the Kinderhook tract which was the subject of the sale. Nor does plaintiff dispute the propriety of Newman’s consideration of the $31,746 sales price for the recent sale of that tract. Thus, Newman was comparing a sale of a property with all of its attributes to the instant property with all of its attributes. The consideration of all of the attributes of a property being appraised is at the heart of Oberlaender and Lotta. Newman felt the highest and best use for both tracts was for the extraction of the limestone. This caused him to give the inept answers which he gave on cross-examination, but those answers must be considered in connection with the fact that he was using the comparable-sale approach to market value. However, some problem arises because he decided to adjust the sales price of the Kinderhook tract to an evaluation of the tract in issue almost entirely on the basis of the difference in the estimated size of the limestone deposits on the two tracts. As indicated, the instant property was given a slightly higher valuation per unit of deposit because of the economy in mining a larger tract. Newman thought this economy of scale would tend to enhance the market value of this tract. Perhaps Newman’s testimony should have been excluded because he did not give consideration to the difference between the tracts based upon aspects other than their use for the extraction of limestone. However, that seems a rather minor matter in view of his opinion that the highest and best use of the properties was for a quarry. Rather, the impropriety in his testimony seems to me to arise from his assumption that the ratio of size of deposits was the controlling factor in basing a value of defendants’ tract upon the Kinder-hook sale. No consideration was given to demand for a tract with deposits so much larger than those of the Kinderhook tract. The Caraher opinion tends to discourage appraisals for condemnation purposes which take into consideration market factors in determining the value of a tract. (Caraher, 299 Ill. at 18, 132 N.E. at 213.) However, such factors are obviously matters which would be considered by buyers and sellers of quarry sites. While recitation by the witness of figures considered may be improper (Anthony, 136 Ill. 2d 169, 554 N.E.2d 1381), failure of an appraisal witness in a condemnation case to consider market forces affecting the price of minerals to be extracted from the land and the products to be made from them has been held to make an appraisal of such land in a condemnation case too speculative to consider. Department of Transportation v. Mullen (1983), 120 Ill. App. 3d 268, 278, 457 N.E.2d 1362, 1369. I would reverse and remand because of the highly speculative nature of Newman’s testimony.