Nowlin v. Denton County

200 S.W.2d 865, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 705
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 28, 1947
DocketNo. 14821
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 200 S.W.2d 865 (Nowlin v. Denton County) 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
Nowlin v. Denton County, 200 S.W.2d 865, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 705 (Tex. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinion

McDONALD, Chief Justice.

This is a condemnation proceeding in which Denton County seeks to condemn approximately five acres of land for highway purposes out of a 93 acre tract of land owned by appellants. The judgment of the court- below orders the five acres condemned and awards judgment to appellants for $650 for the land actually taken. No complaint is made on appeal of this portion of the judgment. In response to special issues the jury found that the value of the remaining land before the taking was $9,768 and that the value after was $10,327. The landowners have appealed, presenting seven points of error.

Under the first point it is charged that there is no evidence to support the two findings of the jury just quoted. Considered in the light of their arguments made under the point of error, it is apparent that appellants do not complain of the lack of evidence to support the two findings, if taken separately, but complain of the fact that the jury found ⅛ effect that their land was worth more after the taking than it was before, or, perhaps more accurately stated, they complain of the fact that the jury did not find that the 88 acres remaining after the taking was damaged by the taking,

Under the rules of damages applicable to cases of this kind, appellants were entitled to recover the value of the land actually taken, and were also entitled to recover damages resulting to the remainder of their land, the measure of damages being governed by the provisions of Article 3265, Revised Civil Statutes. Sections 3 and 4 of that Article read as follows:

“3. When only a portion of a tract or parcel of a person’s real estate is condemned, the commissioners shall estimate the injuries sustained and the benefits received thereby by the owner; whether the remaining portion is increased or diminished in value by reason of such condemnation, and the extent of such increase or diminution and shall assess the damages accordingly.
“4. In estimating either the injuries or benefits, as provided in the preceding article, such injuries or benefits which the owner sustains or receives in common with the community generally and which are not peculiar to him and connected with his ownership, use and enjoyment, of the par[867]*867ticular parcel of land, shall not be considered by the commissioners in making their estimate.”

Appellants’ contention is, to quote from their first point of error, “that the uncon-tradicted evidence showed by all the witnesses, including those of appellee, that the taking of the land over and across appellants’ farm and the construction of a road thereon reduced the market value of said property in that it cut said farm into two parts of unequal sizes, cutting off the pasture from the improvements and well, that it rendered the working such farm inconvenient, and makes necessary the driving of teams, tools and equipment from one side of said highway to the other, and the only evidence to offset such decrease in value was by a part of the county witnesses who testified that the paved highway increased the market value of such farm enough to off-set the damages, but that such increase in value to such farm was common to all farms in that community and especially to those in close proximity to said highway. * * * ”

The chief conflict in the testimony of the witnesses for the respective parties, as we view it, was over the question of whether the cutting of the farm into two small tracts, one of 30 acres and one of 58 acres, would decrease its market value. The testimony of appellants’ witnesses was to the effect that two tracts of such small size could not be used or sold advantageously, either separately or as a single farm. Appellee’s witnesses, for the most part, said that the remaining land would be worth as much per acre after the taking as before, but on cross examination admitted that in arriving at such an opinion they had included the benefits which would accrue to the land from the improved highway. It is the contention of appellants that all of the testimony, when carefully analyzed, showed without dispute that the remaining land would be worth less after the taking, excluding from consideration the benefits which would accrue to the community generally from the building of the highway. This might be said of much of the testimony given on behalf of appellee, but we are not prepared to hold that there was' no evidence to support the verdict of the jury. We must, under such an attack on the verdict, follow the general rule of examining the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict. Most of the witnesses thought that the land could not be sold for as much per acre, when divided into two small tracts, as it could have been if left in one large tract. But one of appellee’s witnesses testified positively that smaller tracts of land, when located on improved highways, could ‘be sold at a greater price per acre than could a large tract. He said that there were' more purchasers financially able to buy the small tracts than there were who could buy the larger ones. We cannot say as a matter of law that such an opinion was without probative yalue. It was also shown that the highway would be somewhat above the level of the surrounding land, and that it would act ás a terrace and prevent excessive flow of water across the north portion of the land. Appellants’ witnesses said that it would be disadvantageous to cultivate the land when the rows would be shortened by the division of the land into two tracts, but it was shown that the rows laid off during the current year ran parallel to the proposed highway, and would thus not be shortened. From the evidence the jury would have been warranted in believing either way as to the necessity of fencing the land along the new highway.

In our review of the present case we have again given careful study to the opinion in State v. Carpenter, 126 Tex. 604, 89 S.W.2d 194, on rehearing, 89 S.W.2d 979. Under the rules announced in that case, wc believe that there was evidence of probative force from which the- jury could reasonably have concluded, first, that appellants’ land suffered no depreciation in value-as a result of being cut into two parts, and second, that if there was any damage so caused, such damage was more than offset by the benefits accruing peculiarly to this land other than those received in common with the community generally. The evidence regarding the questions of damage and benefits to the land was developed quite fully, and the witnesses, either on direct or on cross examination, or both, stated the bases of their respective opinions. The jury heard them, and under the law had a rather wide discretion in appraising the [868]*868opinions on value which were given by the witnesses.

We overrule the second point of error without discussing it further than to say that the questions raised under it appear to be settled by the opinion in State v. Carpenter, supra.

Under the third point error is charged in the refusal of the court to permit appellants to show the comparative effect of the highway on their land and its effect on an adjoining farm. Appellants’ purpose was to demonstrate to the jury the comparative situations of a farm cut into two pieces by the highway, and that of a farm which was left in one piece.

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200 S.W.2d 865, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 705, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nowlin-v-denton-county-texapp-1947.