Bois d'Arc Island Levee Improvement District No. Four of Dallas & Kaufman County v. Shepherd

522 S.W.2d 584, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 2650
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 24, 1975
DocketNo. 819
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 522 S.W.2d 584 (Bois d'Arc Island Levee Improvement District No. Four of Dallas & Kaufman County v. Shepherd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bois d'Arc Island Levee Improvement District No. Four of Dallas & Kaufman County v. Shepherd, 522 S.W.2d 584, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 2650 (Tex. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

McKAY, Justice.

This is a condemnation suit brought by appellant Bois d’Arc Island Levee Improvement District No. 4 of Dallas and Kaufman County against appellees, C. D. Shepherd and wife. Appellant took as a permanent easement approximately 13 acres of land on the extreme lower portion of appellees’ 139-acre tract. The parties stipulated that the date of taking was November 22, 1967.

The cause was tried before a jury. In response to the four special issues submitted by the court, the jury found as follows: (1) that the condemned 13-acre easement had a market value of $750.00 per acre immediately before the taking and (2) had a market value of $50.00 per acre immediately after the taking; (3) that the 126-acre remainder had a market value of $750.00 an acre immediately before the taking, and (4) had a market value of $650.00 an acre immediately after the taking. Judgment was rendered in favor of the ap-pellee landowners for $30,448.50, which included a judgment of $21,700 based on the jury findings plus 6% interest from the date of taking, on $21,600. (One Hundred Dollars had previously been placed in the registry of the court pursuant to the findings of the Special Commissioners.)

We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Appellant brings only two points. In one, it maintains that the trial court erred in overruling the motion for new trial because there is no evidence to support the jury’s answer to Special Issues 2 and 4 and in its other point appellant maintains that there is insufficient evidence of probative value to support the jury’s answer to Special Issues 2 and 4. In Special Issue 2, the jury was asked to find the market value per acre of the condemned 13-acre easement immediately after the taking. In Special Issue 4, the jury was asked to find the market value per acre of the 126-acre remainder immediately after the taking. Appellant argues that there is insufficient competent evidence primarily because the testimony of the witnesses called by appel-lees was speculative and not based on reasonable probabilities.

When the contention is made that there is no evidence of probative force to support a finding by the trier of facts, the appellate court must consider only the evidence and the inferences tending to support the finding and disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. Garza v. Alviar, 395 S.W.2d 821, 823 (Tex.1965).

[586]*586When the contention is made that evidence is insufficient to support the jury findings, a court of civil appeals must examine all of the evidence and reverse and remand for a new trial if it concludes that the evidence is factually insufficient to support the findings of a vital fact. See Calvert, “No Evidence and Insufficient Evidence” Points of Error, 38 Tex.L.Rev. 361, 366 (1960).

The condemnation proceedings were for the purpose of deepening the channel of the East Fork of the Trinity River in an area known as Parsons Slough. As a basis for their valuation of the 13-acre easement and 126-acre remainder before the taking, expert witnesses called by appellees, testified to sales of comparable nearby property. The jury’s findings in regard to the valuation of the property before the taking are not questioned.

The following chart shows the testimony of the witnesses on values before and after the taking and also the values set by the jury:

WITNESS BEFORE AFTER BEFORE AFTER
Ferguson $700 per acre $25 per acre $700 per acre $550 per acre
Robinson $800 per acre $25 per acre $800 per acre $490 per acre
Walling $150 per acre $200 per acre $300 per acre $300 per acre
Akin $150 per acre $300 per acre $300 per acre $300 per acre
Shepherd $1000 per acre $10 per acre $1000 per acre $500 per acre
Godwin $800 per acre $50 per acre $800 per acre $675 per acre
Issue No. 1 Issue No. 2 Issue No. 3 Issue No. 4
VERDICT $750 per acre $50 per acre $750 per acre $650 per acre

In regard to Special Issue 2, Ferguson, who qualified as an expert witness, testified that the condemned 13-acre easement is a bog hole and an area grown in willows. He stated that the condemned 13-acre easement must be fenced off to keep cattle out and that it cannot be used for fishing or recreation. Although he valued the condemned 13-acre easement at $25.00 an acre immediately after the taking, he said that the estimate was merely a token value because the land was no longer good for anything.

Robinson, who qualified as an expert witness, testified that the condemned 13-acre easement was worthless to appellees. Appellee Shepherd stated that after the taking, the condemned 13-acre easement was just something to hold the two pieces of land together.

In regard to Special Issue 4, witness Ferguson testified that the remaining 126 acres was damaged because appellee had to build a fence to keep his cows out of the condemned area and because appellee had to build another water tank for his cattle. He testified that the 6 acres south of the easement were damaged because water stands on about an acre or an acre and a half of it; that after the construction was performed on the condemned area, the water could not drain effectively; and that before the taking, the property was a fishing site or a beautiful scenic site with trees, but that after the taking, the property was no longer in that condition. He stated that immediately after the taking, appellees would lose the buyer who would be interested in the 126-acre remainder as a fishing area or scenic site. In addition, Ferguson said that the remainder was [587]*587damaged because the condemnor took the right of ingress and egress.

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Related

City of Beaumont v. Kinard
533 S.W.2d 481 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
522 S.W.2d 584, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 2650, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bois-darc-island-levee-improvement-district-no-four-of-dallas-kaufman-texapp-1975.