Court Opinion

ID: 9884367
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:54:04.353238+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:37.974424
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Schaefer, dissenting: The problem here is the determination of the value of the property of the Belt Railway Company of Chicago. That very property was sold for an amount substantially more than the amount at which it had been assessed. I can not agree that “this sale is wholly inadmissible as evidence of fair cash market value.” The railroad’s property is strategically located, which is why it is valuable. In the absence of evidence of a sharp change in values, the sale of this property, finally approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1962 is sufficiently close in point of time to be relevant evidence of its value during the years 1959 through 1962. This is particularly true because sales of railroads are rare. The fact that the sale resulted from the exercise of an option contained in a long-term lease does not, of course, affect its value as evidence. Regardless of the formula by which the sale price was computed and “adjusted”, the purchasing railroads voluntarily paid it. The suggestion that if they let the option lapse they had no assurance that they could successfully purchase the property thereafter hardly seems to distinguish this situation from other sales resulting from the exercise of options. And the fact that if “the'property was sold to strangers there was no guarantee that a satisfactory lease arrangement could be effected” by the interested railroads suggests that the property might have greater value to some other railroad, or group of railroads, or to a purchaser who would devote the property to other uses. The Interstate Commerce Commission’s statement that there is “no assurance that any other carrier * * * can perform these functions” is not a statement that the services are essential to the public or that the services would otherwise go unperformed. The Commission’s findings of substantial economic benefits to the purchasing railroads should not be disregarded. The argument that the sale price did not represent value because several railroads were involved carries the inference that some group of stockholders was unfairly preferred over others. I am unwilling to accept that inference. But even if the factors relied upon by the majority to bar evidence of the sale were more persuasive than I think they are, they still would not make the evidence “wholly inadmissible”. Like particularized details peculiar to any other transaction, they should be submitted to the trier of the facts for such weight as they may be accorded. Mr. Justice Kluczynski concurs in this dissent.