Court Opinion

ID: 9623922
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:46:18.571648+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:37.024705
License: Public Domain

Andrews, Judge,
concurring specially.
I agree with Division 1 and, therefore, concur in the judgment. I disagree, however, with the majority’s conclusion in Division 2 that the jury’s award with respect to the multiple properties condemned must necessarily set forth separate sums for each property, rather than a lump-sum.
Multiple separate properties with some element of common ownership, as found in the present case, may be joined in a single condemnation action. Cook v. State Hwy. Bd., 162 Ga. 84, 101-102 (132 SE 902) (1926); State Hwy. Dept. v. H. G. Hastings Co., 187 Ga. 204, 208 (199 SE 793) (1938), overruled on other grounds, 216 Ga. 517, 521 (118 SE2d 88) (1961); Marist Society v. Atlanta, 212 Ga. 115, 118 (90 SE2d 564) (1955); Kennedy v. State Hwy. Dept., 108 Ga. App. 1 (132 SE2d 135) (1963). Although I agree a separate jury award for each property would be authorized, and perhaps advisable in the interests of judicial economy, (see generally Department of Transp. v. Gordon, 148 Ga. App. 713, 714 (252 SE2d 211) (1979) (Birdsong, J., concurring specially) (regarding separate awards for multiple ownership interests in one property)), I do not find any authority which requires separate awards, or holds that a lump-sum award is erroneous.
In analogous circumstances, where multiple ownership interests *680are condemned in one property in a single condemnation action, both lump-sum and separate verdicts have been approved. As the majority points out, Department of Transp. v. Olshan, 237 Ga. 213 (227 SE2d 349) (1976) recognizes that where multiple ownership interests in one property are sought to be condemned, the condemnation may be pursued in a single in rem action if the rights of at least one such owner attach to the whole tract. In applying Olshan to a condemnation of competing ownership interests, the court in Department of Transp. v. McLaughlin, 163 Ga. App. 1, 3 (292 SE2d 435) (1982) stated that “[t]he general rule followed by most jurisdictions is to require only one condemnation action, join all parties whose presence is necessary to condemn all interests, and to instruct the jury first to determine the value of the whole, and then secondarily determine the amounts to be awarded to the separate interests. [Cits.] Our Supreme Court [in Olshan, supra] has authorized such a procedure.” McLaughlin, supra at 3. (Emphasis supplied.) Accordingly, the McLaughlin court rejected the DOT’s argument that a lump-sum award was required, and that the trial court erred by directing the jury to return a verdict setting out separate sums to be awarded to each ownership interest condemned. However, neither Olshan nor McLaughlin held that a lump-sum award was erroneous, but only that the separate award procedure was authorized.
In reaching this conclusion, the McLaughlin court explained that Georgia has rejected the “undivided fee rule,” which holds that compensation for the taking is equivalent only to the value of the undivided whole, rather than the sums of the various ownership interests in the whole. McLaughlin, supra at 2-3; see generally 4 Nichols on Eminent Domain, § 12.05 [1] (Rev. 3d ed. 1990). But while recognizing that determining just and adequate compensation requires the jury to consider the value of the various ownership interests to be condemned, this Court has also recognized that the value of the various interests may be properly combined in a lump-sum verdict. State Hwy. Dept. v. Thomas, 115 Ga. App. 372, 377 (154 SE2d 812) (1967).
Moreover, the evidence was not insufficient to enable the jury to determine the value of the parcels condemned merely because the DOT’s expert testified as to a lump-sum dollar figure for all the tracts. A jury provided with sufficient facts and circumstances about the property to calculate value with a reasonable degree of certainty, may properly reject a dollar figure given by an expert and reach its own conclusions with respect to value, so long as the award does not reflect that the jury was grossly mistaken or unduly biased. Department of Transp. v. Delta Machine Prods. Co., 157 Ga. App. 423, 427-428 (278 SE2d 73) (1981); compare Dept. of Transp. v. Bird, 158 Ga. App. 369 (280 SE2d 394) (1981); Municipal Elec. Auth. v. Anglin, 180 Ga. App. 600 (349 SE2d 546) (1986). Such an award is supportable if *681within the range of all the evidence, whether rendered in the form of a separate amount for each parcel or a lump-sum amount.
Decided July 15, 1991
Reconsideration denied July 29, 1991.
Kris Knox, for appellants.
Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, Zorn & Caldwell, William A. Zorn, for appellee.
It was not error to condemn the separate properties in a single action, and employ the lump-sum jury award.