Gazianis v. Town of Clinton

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Gazianis v. Town of Clinton

212 N.E.2d 854, 350 Mass. 758

CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

DecidedDecember 29, 1965

StatusPublished

Cited by2 cases

This text of 212 N.E.2d 854 (Gazianis v. Town of Clinton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Gazianis v. Town of Clinton, 212 N.E.2d 854, 350 Mass. 758 (Mass. 1965).

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Opinion

During the trial of a petition for the assessment of damages under G. L. c. 79, resulting in a verdict for the owners of $20,000 for land and building (a twenty-four room tenement), the judge, subject to the petitioners’ exception, struck the opinion of a part owner (the witness) that the property taken was worth $65,000. This opinion was based on an estimated value of $2 a square foot for the 18,000 square feet of land, and a valuation of $1,200 a room. The judge’s interrogation of the witness elicited that the estimate of $1,200 rested solely on a rule of thumb derived from a single experience of the witness as the prospective buyer of other property when the prospective seller told him that he valued his tenement at $1,200 a room. There was no error in striking the opinion of the total value which was partly based on such a palpably erroneous standard of evaluation. Although the record shows that the witness had sufficient familiarity with the whole property to give an opinion of its value in his capacity as part owner (Menici v. Orton Crane & Shovel Co. 285 Mass. 499, 503), no effort was made to get his opinion before the jury on that basis or any other competent basis.

Exceptions overruled.

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During the trial of a petition for the assessment of damages under G. L. c. 79, resulting in a verdict for the owners of $20,000 for land and building (a twenty-four room tenement), the judge, subject to the petitioners’ exception, struck the opinion of a part owner (the witness) that the property taken was worth $65,000. This opinion was based on an estimated value of $2 a square foot for the 18,000 square feet of land, and a valuation of $1,200 a room. The judge’s interrogation of the witness elicited that the estimate of $1,200 rested solely on a rule of thumb derived from a single experience of the witness as the prospective buyer of other property when the prospective seller told him that he valued his tenement at $1,200 a room. There was no error in striking the opinion of the total value which was partly based on such a palpably erroneous standard of evaluation. Although the record shows that the witness had sufficient familiarity with the whole property to give an opinion of its value in his capacity as part owner (Menici v. Orton Crane & Shovel Co. 285 Mass. 499, 503), no effort was made to get his opinion before the jury on that basis or any other competent basis.

Exceptions overruled.

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Bluebook (online)

212 N.E.2d 854, 350 Mass. 758, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gazianis-v-town-of-clinton-mass-1965.

Opinion

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