Court Opinion

ID: 9580060
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:01:29.00697+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:00.359742
License: Public Domain

Felton, Chief Judge,
dissenting. It is my opinion that the Supreme Court has jurisdiction of this case. I dissent from the judgment for this reason; while I would agree with the opinion if I thought this court has jurisdiction.
On Motion to Rehear.
It is contended in the motion to rehear that this court is in error in holding that the adjudication as to the quantity and quality of the interest of the condemnee, as awarded by the special master and made the judgment of the court, is conclusive and not subject to de novo investigation by the jury on appeal, in support of which the plaintiff in error cites that portion of Code Ann. § 36-616a of the special master act providing that the money may be paid into the registry of the court and that “the clerk shall pay out such money to such condemnees, or their personal representatives, upon proper proof submitted to him as to the quanitity of such interest and, where there are conflicting claims, he may require such conflicting parties to establish their claims before the court as is provided by law in other similar matters.” We are free to admit that Ch. 36-6a is not without difficulties, and one of them would be a question of construction of the legislative intent if, after the award of the special master naming certain persons as condemnees to the fund and made the judgment of the court without objection it later appeared that others not so named claimed the proceeds or a part of them from the clerk of the court. We need not decide whether the provisions of Code Ann. § 36-616a would apply only in a case where the conflicting interests of claimants to the fund were not decided in the first instance, or whether in every case this is the proper method of adjudicating such conflicting claims to the fund, and the quantity of interest therein of the various claim*884ants. That question is not before us now. What Code § 36-616a does make very clear is that the court, and not the jury on appeal, will decide the quantity of interest of each condemnee, and what we have said is that the court and not the jury will also decide the quality of such interest, for the reason that the appeal to the jury goes to the issue of value only and it is not intended by this act, either considered by itself or in connection with the other methods of condemning property set out in Chapter 36 of the Code, to leave any other subject matter for jury determination.