Marx Stationery & Printing Co. v. Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia

675 A.2d 769, 1996 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 178
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 30, 1996
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 675 A.2d 769 (Marx Stationery & Printing Co. v. Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marx Stationery & Printing Co. v. Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia, 675 A.2d 769, 1996 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 178 (Pa. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

KELLEY, Judge.

Marx Stationery & Printing Company, Penn Dry Goods Company, India Overseas Traders, Inc., Susan Garment Co., Lema Novelty Co., Inc., P & S Fabrics, Supreme Suitcase & Bag Co., Irving Wenger Co., Ber-bén Uniforms, Inc., Berben Insignia, and S & S Hat Co. (hereinafter collectively, tenants), appeal and the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia (RDA), cross-appeals from the February 3,1995 order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, which denied both parties’ motions for post-trial relief.

I. Factual and Procedural History

These consolidated appeals arise out of an eminent domain proceeding that began more than 17 years ago. The history of this case, as previously stipulated by the parties, involves a commercial building known as the Harrison Building located at 1001-23 Filbert Street in Philadelphia. On February 16, 1979, the owners of the Harrison Building initiated an eminent domain proceeding by filing a petition for appointment of viewers, alleging that the activities of the RDA surrounding the Gallery East Project and the City of Philadelphia (City) in the Center City Rail Tunnel Project, resulted in a de facto taking of their property.1 The tenants did not join in the owners’ petition.

After an evidentiary hearing was held before the Honorable Lois G. Forer, an initial order and opinion was entered on August 10, 1981, later modified by an order and opinion dated August 21, 1981 (hereinafter August 1981 orders), in which it was determined that a de facto taking had occurred by the RDA’s activities but not by the activities of the City. Both the RDA and the owners appealed to this court.

In the meantime, the tenants contacted the RDA to discuss their own claims for damages as a result of the same activities by both the RDA and the City. On November 8, 1982, the tenants filed a petition for appointment of viewers.2 Both the RDA and the City filed preliminary objections to the tenants’ petition. Thereafter, counsel for the tenants, the RDA and the City agreed to hold in abeyance the tenants’ November 8, 1982 petition, pending the outcome of the appeals from the August 1981 orders by the owners and the RDA.

During this time, the RDA, the City, the owners and a proposed purchaser of the Harrison Building entered into a settlement agreement which was submitted to Judge Forer by way of a proposed stipulation and order. The tenants were not informed of the impending settlement of the litigation by these parties and Judge Forer was unaware that the tenants had filed' their petition for appointment of viewers on November 8,1982. Accordingly, on August 1, 1983 (hereinafter the 1983 order), Judge Forer approved the stipulation and entered an order dismissing the owners’ action for appointment of viewers and vacating her prior orders and findings in that action.

The tenants then filed an amended petition for appointment of viewers on July 6, 1984. At a subsequent conference before Judge Forer, she informed the parties that she intended to treat her findings of fact and conclusions of law in the owners’ case as the law of the case. The RDA and the City filed preliminary objections to the tenants’ amended petition. In a memorandum opinion dated May 19, 1986, filed May 21, 1986, Judge Forer noted that “the RDA and owners conspired to keep the Court and the tenants in the dark” and concluded that the RDA was collaterally estopped from arguing that the 1983 order vacating the August 1981 orders prevented those orders from becoming a final judgment. Accordingly, Judge Forer determined that the August 1981 orders were final; therefore, the tenants’ amended petition for appointment of viewers was granted [773]*773and the RDA’s preliminary objections were overruled.

On RDA’s appeal to this court of Judge Forer’s 1986 order, this court determined that once the parties had filed their appeals from Judge Forer’s August 1981 orders, the trial court was without jurisdiction to proceed in the matter.3 Consequently, Judge Forer’s August 1, 1983 order vacating these prior orders was invalid. This court held that there had been a taking and therefore affirmed that part of Judge Forer’s May 1986 order appointing a Board of Viewers to hear and determine damages. The RDA’s subsequent application for reargument before this court was denied. Both the tenants’ and the RDA’s petitions for allocatur filed with the Supreme Court were also denied.

Finally, on April 3,1990, a Board of Viewers (Board) convened to hear the tenants’ damages claims. At the hearing, tenants’ counsel and then-RDA’s counsel Dona Kahn, entered into a number of stipulations. These stipulations are characterized by the tenants as judicial admissions as to the amounts of damages each tenant is entitled to, while the RDA characterizes them as stipulations made solely for the purpose of eliminating the need for all eleven tenants to testify before the Board as to what each claimed for damages.

Following the hearing, the Board entered an award in favor of the tenants in the aggregate amount of $992,838.11 plus delay damages. All but Berben Insignia, Inc., received general damages under the Assembled Economic Unit Doctrine (AEUD), and all received special damages under section 601A of the Eminent Domain Code (Code), Act of June 22, 1964, Special Sess., P.L. 84, as amended, added by the Act of December 29, 1971, P.L. 640, as amended 26 P.S. § 1-601A4 Both the tenants and the RDA appealed to the trial court from the Board’s report.

After numerous pre-trial motions, including motions for summary judgment and partial summary judgment and a quashed appeal to this court, the trial was set for January 6, 1992.5

Following three weeks of testimony, the jury returned verdicts in favor of the tenants in the aggregate amount of $431,509.14. However, only S & S Hat Company was awarded general damages under the AEUD. The tenants then filed a motion for recovery of fees and costs under section 609 of the Code, 26 P.S. § 1-609, as well as post-trial motions specifically objecting to issues at trial. The RDA filed post-trial motions as well.6

On February 3, 1995, the trial court denied both parties’ post-trial motions, denied section 609 costs and fees to all but S & S Hat Company, and molded the verdict accordingly. The parties then filed appeals with this court, which have been consolidated for our review.7

[774]*774II. Tenants’ Appeal

A. Issues

The tenants raise a number of issues for our review:

1. Whether the trial court erred in ruling that the stipulations made by the parties before the Board were not binding at trial.
2. Whether the trial court erred in failing to limit the scope of the trial to the applicability of the Assembled Economic Unit Doctrine (AEUD) to tenants’ claims.
3. Whether the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that their expert’s definition of “fair market value” was correct as a matter of law.
4. Whether the trial court erred in failing to exclude or strike the RDA’s experts’ testimony on the grounds that they were not qualified and that their testimony was not legally competent under the Code.
5.

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Bluebook (online)
675 A.2d 769, 1996 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marx-stationery-printing-co-v-redevelopment-authority-of-philadelphia-pacommwct-1996.