Mississippi Transportation Commission v. Howard

178 So. 3d 778, 2012 WL 6117920, 2012 Miss. App. LEXIS 824
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 11, 2012
DocketNo. 2010-CC-01395-COA
StatusPublished

This text of 178 So. 3d 778 (Mississippi Transportation Commission v. Howard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mississippi Transportation Commission v. Howard, 178 So. 3d 778, 2012 WL 6117920, 2012 Miss. App. LEXIS 824 (Mich. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

RUSSELL, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. This is an appeal of an eminent domain case from the Special Court of Eminent Domain of Lowndes County, Mississippi. After a trial, the jury awarded the landowners $604,760 in just compensation. The Mississippi Transportation Commission (MTC) appeals the jury award, claiming the trial court erred by (1) allowing testimony to prove demand of the subject property; (2) allowing irrelevant and immaterial testimony; (3) refusing jury instruction P-14 regarding the jury’s assessment of the appraisers’ testimonies; (4) admitting into evidence a sale of property incomparable to the subject property; (5) allowing expert testimony not based on reliable principles and methods; (6) allowing the landowners’ appraiser to testify about the highest and best use of incomparable sales and compounding the error by granting jury instruction D-13 regarding the size of land; (7) granting jury instruction D-12 regarding the landowners’ desire to sell the subject property; and (8) denying MTC’s motion for a new.trial. Finding no error, we affirm the jury award of $604,760 to the landowners.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. Bryant Howard, Doris Howard, and James Howard owned a 111.16 acre tract of land used as a cattle farm. The east boundary of the Howard property was United States Highway 45, which was initially a two-lane highway. The north boundary of the property consisted of [782]*782Kansas City Southern Railroad.' The northeast boundary consisted of property owned by Mississippi Valley Gas Company, and McIntyre Road formed the south and west .boundaries of the Howard property.

¶ 3. On September 8, 2005j MTC' filed a complaint to acquire 45.57 acres of the Howards’ land for the expansion of Highway 45 into a four-lane highway. The trial court appointed Joyce Collie as an independent appraiser on October 10, 2005. Collie entered an appraisal value of $136,000 for total compensation and damages for the taking. On November 1, 2005, MTC acquired immediate title and possession of the condemned property by order of the court. On October 8, 2008, an agreed order .to allow MTC to file an amended complaint increasing the amount of land to be acquired from 45.57 acres to 46.31 acres and establishing the date of taking as the date MTC filed the amended complaint was entered. MTC filed the amended complaint on October 16, , 2008. MTC deposited $141,000 with the clerk of court on . November 7, 2005, and an additional $48,300 on August 20, 2008,. totaling $189,300.

¶ 4. MTC filed a statement of value on November 4, 2008, listing the fair market value ■ of the condemned property as $162,150 with $27,150 in damages for fencing replacement, for a total compensation of $189,300. ■ On March 1, 2010, the How-ards entered a statement of value with a just compensation figure of $1,454,530.32, based on a, fair market. value of $1,335,063.12 and damages of $119,467.20. The damages included $16,850 for fencing replacement; $3,000 for temporary water replacement; $207.27 for a temporary easement; and $99,409.93 in damages to the remaining property.

¶ 5. An amended statement of value was filed by MTC on March 5, 2010, adding severance as an additional element of damages.1 That samé day, the Howards filed an amended statement of value changing the fair market-value from $1,885,063.12 to $1,388,141.25, and changing the amount of damages from $119,467.50 to $121,389.07. The Howards’ statement listed the same figures for the itemized damages, with the exception of $101,881.80 in damages to the remaining property. In spite of those changes, the amount of just compensation listed on the Howards’amended statement still totaled $1,454,580.82.

¶6. A trial was held on April 18-15, 2010/ Steve Holcombe, appraisal expert for the Howards; classified the -highest and best use of the Howard property as light industrial and secondary commercial. MTC’s appraisal expert, Alex Smith, classified the highest and best use of the property as rural residential and agricultural.

¶ 7. After hearing testimony and reviewing the evidence, which included traveling to the site to personally view the Howard property, the jury awarded the Howards $604,760 in just compensation for the taking. On May 14, 2010, MTC filed a motion for a new trial and a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict,- both of which were denied by the trial court. MTC now appeals. ■'

DISCUSSION

I. Whether the trial court erred in admitting the testimony of Higgins and Rhett to prove demand for the Howard property.

¶8. Generally, the admission or exclusion of testimony is within the discretion of the trial court. Miss. Transp. Comm’n v. Fires, 693 So.2d 917, 920 (Miss.[783]*7831997), Where a court has applied an incorrect 'legal standard for admitting evidence, the error has become one of law, and the appropriate standard of review is de novo. Id. This Court will only reverse if there was an erroneous interpretation or application of. the law. Id.

¶9. MTO argues the trial court erred when it ruled, in the presence of the jury, that the testimony of Joe Higgins and Robert Rhett was allowed to prove demand for the Howard property.2 MTC filed a motion in limine to exclude the testimony of Higgins and Rhett on the ground of relevancy. The trial court reserved ruling on the motion and allowed testimony from the two witnesses to prove demand for the Howard property. Higgins, Chief Economic Developer for Lowndes County, testified that the Howard property was marketable as industrial and commercial property. Higgins also testified that prior to' the taking, he showed the Howard property to several industrial prospects. MTC objected to Higgins’s testimony on the ground of relevancy, arguing the testimony was irrelevant, immaterial, and had no value' for determining the highest and best use of the Howard property. The court overruled the objection, stating that the testimony would be allowed for the limited purpose of proving demand for the Howard property and not for the purpose of determining the fair' market value of the property. Higgins named several Industrial companies to which he showed the Howard property prior to the date of the taking, and also stated how the Howard property was suitable. Higgins testified that because the Howard property had access to a high voltage power line, a natural gas line, a rail line, and a mile of highway frontage, the property would be beneficial to industrial prospects.

-¶ 10. MTC renewed its motion prior to Rhett’s testimony. The court overruled the motion, and allowed Rhett’s testimony for the limited purpose of proving demand. Rhett,. a Lowndes County realtor, testified that prior to the taking, he showed the Howard property to a client, Delta Industries, for the purpose of establishing a cement plant. After learning the property was not for sale, Delta Industries purchased a tract of land approximately one-quarter of a mile away from the Howard property.

¶ 11. The trial court cited Clark v. Mississippi Transportation Commission, 767 So.2d 173, 175-76 (¶ 10) (Miss.2000) to explain why the limited testimony from Higgins and Rhett was allowed. Clark states in relevant part:

There must be some probability that the' land would be used within a reasonable time for the particular use to which it is adapted ... There must be a present demand for the land for such purposes or a reasonable expectation of such demand in the near future.

Id.

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Bluebook (online)
178 So. 3d 778, 2012 WL 6117920, 2012 Miss. App. LEXIS 824, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mississippi-transportation-commission-v-howard-missctapp-2012.