City of Sugar Land v. Home & Hearth Sugarland, L.P.

215 S.W.3d 503, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 308, 2007 WL 117928
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 18, 2007
Docket11-05-00062-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 215 S.W.3d 503 (City of Sugar Land v. Home & Hearth Sugarland, L.P.) 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
City of Sugar Land v. Home & Hearth Sugarland, L.P., 215 S.W.3d 503, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 308, 2007 WL 117928 (Tex. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION

JIM R. WRIGHT, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal in an eminent domain proceeding. Home and Hearth Sugarland, L.P. (Home and Hearth) owned a tract of land in the City of Sugar Land, Texas. 1 The City instituted condemnation proceedings in which it acquired the entire interest of Home and Hearth as to a portion of the property as well as a drainage easement across another portion of the property. Home and Hearth owned a hotel that was located on the remainder of the property, and the City did not seek any interest in that property. Special Commissioners awarded Home and Hearth $552,651 for the taking.

Home and Hearth appealed the award to the County Court at Law No. 1. The case was tried to a jury, and the trial court entered a judgment in accordance with the verdict. Because Home and Hearth had withdrawn the amount of the Commissioners’ award, the trial court credited its judgment for $552,651 and awarded Home and Hearth $1,529,316.50 plus prejudgment interest of $231,322.50. We affirm.

*509 Background, Facts

On May 1, 1998, Home and Hearth purchased a 5.9873-acre tract of land located near the intersection of U.S. Highway 90-A and U.S. Highway 59 in Sugar Land, Texas. 2 On June 19, 1998, Home and Hearth obtained a building permit for the construction of a hotel. Home and Hearth constructed a three-story, extended-stay hotel on approximately 3 acres of the interior portion of the 5.9873-acre tract, leaving a 1.7709-acre tract to the north of the hotel site (fee area) and a 1.056-acre tract to the south of the hotel site. As required by the City, Home and Hearth constructed a detention pond on approximately .7 acres on the eastern portion of the 1.7709-aere tract.

The City filed condemnation proceedings by which it sought to take fee simple title to the 1.7709-acre tract in order to construct a regional detention pond. The construction plan for the regional detention pond incorporated the .7-acre detention facility already built by Home and Hearth. Home and Hearth had built the on-site detention pond in order to meet drainage requirements for obtaining a building permit. One month after Home and Hearth obtained the building permit, the City adopted Ordinance No. 1129 which changed the detention requirements for undeveloped property where Home and Hearth was located. The ordinance provided that a property owner could elect to pay an impact fee of $16,000 per acre instead of providing on-site detention in order to obtain a building permit.

The City also sought a drainage easement across the 1.056-acre tract. The amount awarded for this taking is not involved in this appeal. The City did not seek to condemn any interest in the property upon which the hotel was located. However, Home and Hearth claimed that, in addition to damages for the taking of the 1.7709-acre tract and for the taking of the easement, the City owed it for damages to the hotel property that occurred as a result of that taking.

The Appeal from the Commissioners’ Award

After the appeal from the Commissioners’ award, the case initially went to trial in November 2001. During the trial, the City moved for a trial amendment that would allow Home and Hearth drainage rights for the hotel property that was not taken. The trial court allowed the City to amend its pleadings in order to grant drainage rights for the hotel portion of the property but refused to allow a trial amendment as to Home and Hearth’s other undeveloped tract not taken by the City. Home and Hearth moved for a mistrial, and the trial court granted the motion.

On April 12, 2004, the City filed its “First Amended Petition and Statement in Condemnation.” At a later hearing, the City stipulated that Home and Hearth could drain its undeveloped property into the proposed regional detention pond at no cost to Home and Hearth. Together, the amended petition and the stipulation allowed Home and Hearth to drain the entire remainder into the regional detention facility.

In July 2004, the case was presented to a jury, and the jury returned its verdict that on the date of the taking, January 13, 2000:(1)' the market value of the 1.7709-acre fee area (77,142-square feet) taken by the City was $14.75 per square foot; (2) the difference in the market value of the 0.0169 acres (736-square feet across the 1.056-acre tract) immediately before and *510 immediately after the taking was $1,472; and (3) the difference in the market value of the remainder immediately before and immediately after the taking was $390,000. 3

The trial court denied the City’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and it entered a final judgment on the jury verdict. Subsequently, the trial court denied the City’s motion to modify and its motion for new trial.

The Issues

The primary issues in this case relate to the fair market value of the 1.7709-acre fee area and to the amount awarded for damages to the remainder as a result of the taking of the fee area. In this appeal, the City attacks the admissibility of the testimony of Home and Hearth’s two expert witnesses, Vernon Henry and Matthew C. Deal. The City also contends that the trial court reversibly erred when it denied the City’s request for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict because, without Henry’s testimony and without Deal’s testimony, the evidence was legally insufficient to support the jury’s finding on the market value of the fee area taken as well as its finding regarding damages to the remainder resulting from the taking. The City also complains that the trial court abused its discretion when it denied the City’s requested jury instructions.

Admissibility of Expert Testimony Generally

Under Tex.R. Evid. 702, in order for an expert’s testimony to be admissible, the expert must be qualified, and the expert’s opinion must be relevant to the issues in the ease and must be based upon a reliable foundation. Guadalupe-Bianco River Auth. v. Kraft, 77 S.W.3d 805, 807 (Tex.2002) (applying the relevancy and reliability requirements of Rule 702 to testimony of expert appraisal witnesses in condemnation actions); Gammill v. Jack Williams Chevrolet, Inc., 972 S.W.2d 713, 719 (Tex.1998). The trial court acts as an evidentiary gatekeeper to screen irrelevant and unreliable expert evidence. Exxon Pipeline Co. v. Zwahr, 88 S.W.3d 623, 629 (Tex.2002). A trial court has broad discretion to determine the admissibility of evidence, and the appellate court will reverse only if that discretion has been abused. A trial court abuses its discretion if it acts without reference to any guiding principles. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. Robinson, 923 S.W.2d 549, 556 (Tex.1995).

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Bluebook (online)
215 S.W.3d 503, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 308, 2007 WL 117928, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-sugar-land-v-home-hearth-sugarland-lp-texapp-2007.