Court Opinion

ID: 9768588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 06:09:01.881013+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:45.768372
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION
FINCH, Judge.
I respectfully dissent herein.
The majority opinion concludes that the sale price which was involved in the defendants’ offer of proof was based on speculation of the parties as to what the property would be worth in October 1971 because payment of the $80,000 is postponed until October 1971 and thereafter and the deed is to be delivered in October 1971. I disagree. This was a currently executed, binding, written contract to sell and buy, respectively. There is nothing to indicate that the parties are speculating as to a future value. Rather, they simply provided for a deferred method of payment and closing which is a little unusual. T f the deed to the property had been delivered at the time of the contract, with a note and deed of trust for $80,000, payable $20,000 on October 1, 1971, and the remainder thereafter, with interest at six per cent, there would have been no question but that this was a current sale, and evidence of the sale price would have been admissible in this case. Counsel for the Highway Commission so conceded in oral argument. Simple arithmetic shows that interest at six per cent on $80,000 is $4800 per year, or the equivalent of the $400 per month which MFA was to pay until October of 1971 under this contract of purchase. We do not know what motivated the different format for deferring the time and method of payment. It may have been a desire by MFA to defer the immediate accrual of the total purchase price, but, in my view, that is immaterial. It still is a currently negotiated sales price.
Another method which might have been used would have been a contract for a deed with the deed to be held in escrow. If such a contract had called for payments of $400 *558per month until October 1, 1971, with a payment of $20,000 at that time and the remaining $60,000 subsequently, and with a deed to be delivered when the $20,000 was paid, can there be any question but that this would have been a present sale, with the evidence of the sale price admissible herein ?
The purpose of condemnation trials is to determine reasonable compensation for that which the condemnor is taking. Value of the property taken is not exact but must be determined by the jury from all the evidence submitted to it. The court seeks to give the jury the benefit of all evidence which will assist it in performing that task. The tendency is to admit all evidence which reasonably sheds light on this question of fair compensation. As stated in State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Barron, Mo., 400 S.W.2d 33, 37, “Artificial rules of evidence which exclude from the jury matters which men consider in their everyday affairs hinder, rather than help, the arrival at a just result.”
The rule is further elaborated in State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Koberna, Mo., 396 S.W.2d 654, 662, as follows: “The general rule is that evidence of the sale price of property similarly located to that involved, and made in the neighborhood reasonably near the time of taking, is admissible to aid the triers of fact in determining the compensation to which the owner is entitled for the taking of the property.” Subsequently, in the same paragraph, the court states further: “Unless the distance in location, or the difference in time of sale from the time of taking, or the lack of similarity be so great as to make the evidence, as a matter of law, not material or relevant, such differences go to the weight of the evidence rather than to its admissibility.”
When these rules are applied, how can it be said that the evidence involved in the offer of proof herein was inadmissible? Certainly, individuals or companies considering the purchase of the tract condemned would consider this MFA sale in determining what, in their judgment, would be a proper sale price. They would not be misled by the method of payment and would accord weight to the transaction as their judgment would dictate, just as a jury weighs the evidence submitted to it.
The majority opinion says that admission of the evidence of this MFA transaction “would inject such elements of speculation and conjecture as to confuse the issue and mislead the jury.” I find it most difficult to square this conclusion with some of our previously decided cases. As the old saying goes, “Let’s look at the record.”
In the recent banc case of Land Clearance Authority v. Doerenhoefer, Mo., 404 S.W.2d 385, this court dealt with a condemnation in the City of St. Louis and held admissible what the owner had paid for the condemned property when he acquired it nine years before the time of taking. This was held to be true even though the court recognized that during the nine-year period the Veterans Bridge across the Mississippi River and the Third Street Highway were opened, construction of the riverfront memorial project was begun, construction of the Gateway Arch was started, the old Courthouse at Fourth and Market Streets was made a national monument, and various other buildings were constructed or renovated in the neighborhood which upgraded it. The majority opinion states, 1. c. 386: “The purchase price was relevant evidence in helping the jury to arrive at its verdict.” Subsequently, in the opinion the court says: “The jury could reasonably have concluded that over the nine-year period since the purchase, and in view of the improvements made by Esses and the upgrading of the neighborhood, the fair market value of the property had increased by the amount of $15,000.” The spread of nine years and the material changes in the neighborhood and in the property itself did not cause the majority to hold the evidence inadmissible. The fact that the transaction occurred nine years before and under conditions recognized to be different did not *559cause the exclusion of the evidence as injecting “elements of speculation and conjecture” which would confuse the jury. Rather, these were things which the court recognized would go to the weight of the evidence in its consideration by the jury.
In State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Koberna, Mo., 396 S.W.2d 654, this court held admissible evidence of the sale of comparable land which had occurred approximately five years before the time of taking in condemnation. Again, the court recognized that the lapse of time would go to the weight of the testimony and that the parties had an opportunity to, and did undertake to so demonstrate to the jury.
In State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Johnson, Mo., 287 S.W.2d 835, this court held admissible evidence as to what the owner had paid for the property being condemned when he purchased it twenty-five years before, and in City of St. Louis v. Paramount Shoe Mfg. Co., 237 Mo.App. 200, 168 S.W.2d 149, the court held admissible evidence as to value nine years before the time of taking, even though the great depression had intervened between the purchase and the time of taking.
It will be observed that in some of these cases the span of time between the condemnation and the date as of which value was offered was greater than the span of time between the MFA transaction and its date of consummation in October 1971, but in each of these reported cases the court admitted the evidence, leaving its weight and value to the jury.
Consider also the expert opinion evidence which was admitted in this case. Evidence on behalf of the landowner as to value of the property taken ranged from a high of $99,-086 down to about $50,000. Evidence on behalf of the State ranged from a low of $1526 to a high of $9100. The high estimate of damages was sixty-four times the amount of the low estimate of damages. That evidence was admitted as sufficiently reliable to go to the jury to consider and weigh. It is arguable that this tremendous spread would confuse and mislead the jury and, in the language of the majority opinion, perhaps inject “elements of speculation and conj ecture,” but under our rules of evidence we admit it for the jury to consider and weigh. If that is proper, how can we possibly say that evidence as to an actually executed, arm’s length contract of sale between responsible parties as to a comparable nearby tract is inadmissible because it might confuse or mislead the jury simply because its timing as to method of payment was different? At least, this transaction represented what actual owners and a business firm purchaser contracted and agreed to pay in real money therefor, whereas the opinion evidence is not backed by a nickel of anyone’s money and represents expert opinion and nothing more. If we admit the opinion evidence which was received in this case on the theory it is sufficiently reliable for the jury to consider, but exclude evidence of the MFA contract of purchase and sale on the basis that it injects “such elements of speculation and conjecture as to confuse the issue and mislead the jury,” it seems to me that we strain at the gnat and swallow the camel.
The majority opinion properly criticizes the rule, announced in School District of Clayton v. Kelsey, 355 Mo. 478, 196 S.W.2d 860, that evidence of the sale price in a contract of sale which was executory rather than finally consummated was inadmissible. The majority opinion refused to sustain the action of the trial court on the basis of the rule in that case. Instead, as above indicated, it held the evidence inadmissible on the basis that the sale price involved was a speculative one as of a date in the future. The majority opinion does not specifically state that the Kelsey case is overruled on that point. I would so state because, in my judgment, that rule is wrong, and I would so state in order to avoid any confusion about the matter in the future.
It should be noted that a majority of the court does consider that the total exclu*560sionary rule of Kelsey is wrong. The opinion written in Division by Commissioner Stockard and promulgated herein as the court en banc opinion criticizes the rule and would admit evidence of the contract price when the trial court has satisfied itself on such issues as comparability of the property, bona fides of the contract and proximity in time of the sale. Judge Eager concurs in Stockard’s opinion and in what it says about Kelsey and has stated in a concurring opinion that it should be overruled. Judges Holman, Seiler and the writer are of the opinion that the Kelsey rule is wrong and should be expressly overruled.