Nalven v. Division of Administration

409 So. 2d 166
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJanuary 29, 1982
Docket81-62, 81-430
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 409 So. 2d 166 (Nalven v. Division of Administration) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nalven v. Division of Administration, 409 So. 2d 166 (Fla. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

409 So.2d 166 (1982)

Robert M. NALVEN and Lionel I. Nalven, As Trustees, Appellants,
v.
DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATION, State of Florida, Department of Transportation, Appellee.

Nos. 81-62, 81-430.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

January 29, 1982.

Lawrence J. Robinson and Terri Jayne Salt of Drymond, Robinson, Bennett & Chase, Sarasota, for appellants.

*167 Alan E. DeSerio and Margaret-Ray Kemper, Tallahassee, for appellee.

GRIMES, Judge.

This appeal poses the question of to what extent a Florida property owner whose land is being condemned is entitled to the enhancement in its value occasioned by the proposed improvement.

Robert and Lionel Nalven, as trustees, appeal from a final judgment awarding them $133,525 for a parcel of their land condemned by appellee Department of Transportation. They contend that the court erred in allowing the Department's expert witness to exclude a prior sale of the parcel and the sale of nearby property in arriving at his assessment of the value of the parcel.

At trial only two appraisers gave an opinion as to the value of the property. In reaching their conclusions, both used the market valuation method of considering sales of comparable properties. Appellants' expert, Sam Rice Caldwell, testified that he considered sales of approximately fourteen parcels and found three that were most comparable for use in placing a value on the property being condemned. The first of these was a 1973 sale of the condemned property itself for $2,100 an acre. The purchaser later defaulted in the payment of the mortgage, and title to the property returned to appellants in foreclosure proceedings. The second comparable sale was of a parcel, known as Creekwood, which sold for $2,365 an acre. The third was a sale of property near Sarasota, known as the Meadows, which sold for $3,500 an acre. After consideration of the similarities and dissimilarities between those properties and appellants' parcel, Caldwell concluded that as of May 6, 1977, the date of taking, the parcel was worth $2,350 an acre. He valued the 91.536 acre parcel at $217,914, including $2,830 for fencing.

The Department of Transportation's expert, Richard L. Phagan, valued the property at $1,440 an acre plus $1,700 for fencing for a total of $133,525. Mr. Phagan said that while he had taken into account a number of comparable sales, he had rejected the prior sale of appellants' property and the Creekwood sale from consideration because the sales price of those parcels had been enhanced by the anticipation of the construction of Interstate 75. Appellants moved to strike Mr. Phagan's testimony on the ground that it was based on the erroneous legal premise that he should not consider any properties that were enhanced by the anticipated improvement. The court in denying the motion stated, "He comes awful close in his appraisal to disregarding general enhancement, but he said, I think in his opinion, it was particularly enhanced or specifically enhanced."

The prior sale of appellants' property involved 1,055 acres of which 91.536 acres were condemned. Mr. Nalven testified that Mr. Norville, the purchaser, knew of the location of the proposed interstate highway because they had discussed it prior to the sale. The sale of the Creekwood parcel, which also occurred in 1973, involved 1,540 acres. The Department of Transportation condemned a portion of that property for the right of way of Interstate 75. Mr. Phagan testified that Jim Doss, a principal in the company which purchased Creekwood, knew of the location of the highway at the time of the purchase. The jury ultimately returned a verdict for $133,525, which was the exact amount to which Mr. Phagan testified.

The case closest in point to this one is Anderson v. State Road Department, 204 So.2d 899 (Fla. 1st DCA 1967), in which the State Road Department appraiser testified that he did not consider any increase in market value that was influenced by the highway project for which the Department was condemning the property. On appeal the court held that the trial court should have stricken this appraiser's testimony because it was based upon a misconception of Florida law with respect to the compensation to be paid for condemned property. Since the jury's award was much closer to the value figure given by the Department's appraiser and more than $100,000 less than the values presented by the property owner's *168 two appraisers, the court reversed for a new trial.

The Florida law upon which the Anderson court relied came from the decisions of the supreme court in Sunday v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad, 62 Fla. 395, 57 So. 351 (1912), and State Road Department v. Chicone, 158 So.2d 753 (Fla. 1963). In Sunday the trial court had charged the jury that in fixing the market value of the property being condemned, the jury was not authorized to take into consideration the enhancement of the value of the property, if any, caused by the proposed improvement. On appeal the supreme court first quoted article XVI, section 29 of the Florida Constitution, which then read:

"No private property nor right of way shall be appropriated to the use of any corporation or individual until full compensation therefor shall be first made to the owner, or first secured to him by deposit of money; which compensation, irrespective of any benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation or individual, shall be ascertained by a jury of twelve men in a court of competent jurisdiction, as shall be prescribed by law."

62 Fla. at 396, 57 So. at 351. The court also quoted section 2013, Florida Statutes (1906), which provided that a jury of twelve men should determine the condemnation award and tracked the constitutional definition of compensation. The court then said:

The Constitution contemplates and the statute requires that the issue submitted shall be what is "full compensation" for the property to be appropriated at its then fair actual value, irrespective of or without regard to any benefits that may accrue to the owner of the property from any improvement proposed by the petitioner; but the law does not deny to the owner any real and reasonable enhancement in the market value of the property to be appropriated by reason of "any improvement proposed." If the property naturally, or in common with other property similarly conditioned, increases in market value in anticipation of the proposed improvement, before the appropriation, the compensation therefor is the fair actual market value at the time of the lawful appropriation.

62 Fla. at 397, 57 So. at 351. The court held that the jury charge was erroneous and reversed the case for a new trial.

Chicone dealt with a situation in which a State Road Department witness testified that the value of the lands being taken was depressed by the imminence of the taking, and the court held that under these circumstances compensation should be based on the value of the property as it would have been at the time of the taking if it had not been subjected to the debilitating threat of condemnation. On the other hand, the court, in passing, interpreted the Sunday case as holding that an increase in value of lands occurring in anticipation of a proposed improvement was an element of compensation to be paid for the lands taken. Thus, after Chicone the property owner was entitled to the benefit of any enhancement to the value of his property by the proposed improvement but was not to be penalized if the anticipation of condemnation had the effect of depressing the property value.

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Related

DEPARTMENT OF TRANS. OF STATE OF FLA. v. Nalven
455 So. 2d 301 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
409 So. 2d 166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nalven-v-division-of-administration-fladistctapp-1982.