Court Opinion

ID: 9849378
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:39:12.563626+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:20.973792
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
The charge given by the trial court in State Hwy. Bd. v. Bridges, 60 Ga. App. 240 (3 SE2d 907) (1939), relating to (a) the market value of the portion actually taken, and (b) the consequential damage to the remainder is now, and has always been, inartful, confusing, inaccurate, and a cause of potential error wherever used. The first part of the Bridges charge relating to the value of the land actually taken should now be affirmatively overruled by this court, as the second part has already been done by the Supreme Court. In Fulton County v. Elliott, 109 Ga. App. 775, 779-780 (137 SE2d 477) (1964), this court stated that the portion of the Bridges charge there considered was obiter dictum. Nevertheless, in reviewing this court’s opinion in that case, the Supreme Court held that even if the Bridges charge was obiter dictum, which they indicated was debatable, it was a correct rule. Elliott v. Fulton County, 220 Ga. 377, 381 (139 SE2d 312) (1964).
Our primary concern is that the Bridges charge, wherever used, as to the value of property actually taken results in an mate double recovery because it effects a built-in recovery for consequential damages. This same dilemma was faced by this court in State Hwy. Dept. v. Thompson, 112 Ga. App. 488 (145 SE2d 784) (1965) over twenty years ago, and we reluctantly but ultimately adhered to the Bridges charge there in part because of the Supeme Court’s seeming approval of it in Elliott v. Fulton County, supra, and chiefly because out of a 3000-word charge, the main objection raised by counsel in that case centered on only one word. See “On Motion for Rehearing” in Thompson, supra.
Subsequently, in Wright v. MARTA, 248 Ga. 372, 376 (283 SE2d 466) (1981), the Supreme Court overruled the last part, or (b) section, of Bridges, relating to consequential damages, stating that the correct charge on this particular issue is: “The proper measure of consequential damages to the remainder is the diminution, if any, in the market value of the remainder in its circumstance just prior to the time of *640the taking compared with its market value in its new circumstance just after the time of the taking.” The Supreme Court further footnoted in Wright that “[t]he correctness of that portion of the Bridges charge dealing with the value of the land actually taken is not before us.” Under Hall v. Hopper, 234 Ga. 625 (216 SE2d 839) (1975), the Supreme Court has stated that stability must yield to justice, and the latest case, if conflicting with an earlier case, is controlling. Whether the Supreme Court’s implicit recognition in Wright, that Bridges, and not Fulton County v. Elliott, supra, is the sole authority for the contested charge, and whether Wright as the latest ruling of our highest court supercedes and implicitly overrules Elliott, is at least debatable.
Decided July 15, 1985
Rehearing denied July 31, 1985
Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, James P. Googe, Jr., Executive Assistant Attorney General, Marion 0. Gordon, First Assistant Attorney General, Roland F. Matson, William C. Joy, Senior Assistant Attorneys General, Jack L. Park, Jr., Special Assistant Attorney General, for appellant.
Harvey J. Kennedy, Jr., for appellee.
In summary, while I share the majority opinion’s and special concurrence’s concern over the potential double recovery inherent with the Bridges charge, this court should now go further and overrule the Bridges (a) part of that charge, because the Supreme Court has seemingly and arguably removed its imprimatur on the rule announced in Elliott v. Fulton County, supra, by what is said in the later case of Wright.
Possibly with the three different views presented in this case, the Supreme Court hopefully will grant certiorari and establish the disapproval of Bridges and its progeny, so that all may know it is relegated to the “derelicts on the stream of the law” and never to be heard of again. United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U. S. 56, 86 (70 SC 430, 94 LE 653) (1950) (J. Frankfurter). Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent to the majority opinion’s upholding of Bridges for the reasons set forth above.