Shelby County v. Kingsway Greens of America, Inc.

706 S.W.2d 634, 1985 Tenn. App. LEXIS 3236
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 31, 1985
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 706 S.W.2d 634 (Shelby County v. Kingsway Greens of America, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shelby County v. Kingsway Greens of America, Inc., 706 S.W.2d 634, 1985 Tenn. App. LEXIS 3236 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

CRAWFORD, Judge.

This is a condemnation case appealed by Shelby County, the condemnor. Defendant was the owner of a 140 acre tract of land which was used as a trailer park and a public recreation area with a 30 acre lake. Ingress and egress to defendant's property was from North Watkins Street, a two-lane road prior to the taking which occasioned this suit. In 1977, the county decided to widen North Watkins Street to a four-lane median divided roadway which required the taking of a strip of land 45 feet wide along the existing right of way from defendant. There is no controversy concerning the value of the land taken for the widening of the roadway and the only real dispute on appeal concerns the incidental damages to the land remaining after the taking.

As noted, defendant operated a trailer court and a public lake recreation area. The public entered and exited the property on a two-lane blacktop road that after a distance of some 100 feet forked to provide access to the separate areas defendant operated. Since this driveway accomodated traffic moving in both directions, the vehicles leaving the trailer court and lake area would merge at the fork which was some 100 feet north of the North Watkins entrance. The taking of the additional strip of land caused this distance from the highway entrance to the fork to be shortened considerably which defendant contended created a dangerous traffic condition that needed remedial action. In support of defendant’s contention, it presented the expert testimony of Frank Palumbo, an engineer with a great deal of expertise in traffic engineering, who testified in part:

Q. All right. Now, I am going to direct your attention to a point just inside the entrance to the existing park. From a traffic consideration, would you comment on its safety, its advisability? What are the problems, if any, at that location under present conditions?
A. What happened when this occurred is that this original hundred-foot distance has now been cut in less than half, because we only have half of that distance to work these movements, traffic movements into the park. Therefore, this has been shortened significantly, which now creates a problem of ingress and egress to the park, less efficient substantially than it was before the improvement.
Q. Okay. Now, say, for example, if a car was coming out of this northward leg and wanted to go south, and a car was coming out of the southward leg and wanting to go north, is there a place where they can safely cross or get by one another.
A. They have to do it extremely carefully because of the shortening of this distance right here. Simply, if this car is going to weave and go south, and this one is weaving and going north, when you also have this pre[636]*636dicament of stacking up in this neutral area before you can make a left turn, so it gives less opportunity to the cars trying to enter and exit for efficient movements in and out of the park.
Q. All right. Okay. Now, we have talked about cars coming out of the park. Is there a same or similar problem for cars going into the park?
A. It’s almost completely the same, but in reverse.
Q. All right. Now, prior to the widening or the addition of another lane to North Watkins, did Kingsway Greens, its entrance, was it a safe and responsible design, in your opinion?
A. From my knowledge, I think the history of accidents there were rather low. I have no statistics to give you at that point. But it appeared to be a reasonable approach to that two-lane road.
Q. All right. Would you now comment upon the safety and condition of the present circumstance as it now exists?
A. Well, this distance being shortened by less than half has created a confusing — a more confusing circulation problem for ingress and egress to the park.
Q. Is it a safer or equally safe condition as before?
A. No, it’s less safer.

Mr. Palumbo then gave his opinion regarding alternative solutions to the problem and continued his testimony:

A. Again, what we are striving for is additional length from the closest traveled lane to give us a better weaving distance in here.
Q. Okay. And would this alternative improve the condition that presently exists there?
A. Without any question.
Q. All right. And would it return it to substantially the same condition of safety that it once had?
A. That was our goal, is to try to provide a similar length in here that was existing prior to this improvement.

Mr. Palumbo’s estimate for the alternative proposals was $9,629.70 for one and $11,798.45 for the other. From the judgment on the jury verdict awarding $11,-798.45 as incidental damages, the county has appealed presenting five issues for review which we will now consider.

Issues 1 and 2 will be considered together:

1. Was it prejudicial error to compel plaintiff’s appraisers, for no reason, to undergo cross-examination before they had given their evidence in chief.
2. Was it prejudicial error thus to place the burden of proof upon the plaintiff and, for no reason, to reverse the order of proof.

The county had retained two appraisers as expert witnesses to testify in its behalf regarding the various property values involved. Over the county’s objection, defendant was allowed pursuant to Tenn.R. Civ.P. 43.02 to present these witnesses as the first two witnesses to testify.

Tenn.R.Civ.P. 43.02 provides in pertinent part:

43.02 Examination and Cross-Examination. — A party may interrogate any unwilling or hostile witness by leading questions. Except as otherwise provided by this rule, the cross-examination of a witness shall not be limited to the subject matter of his examination in chief. A party may call an adverse party or an officer, director, or managing agent of a public or private corporation or of a partnership, association or individual proprietorship which is an adverse party, and interrogate him by leading questions and contradict and impeach him in all respects as if he had been called by the adverse party, and the witness thus called may be contradicted and im[637]*637peached by or on behalf of the adverse party also and may be cross-examined by the adverse party but only upon the subject matter of his examination in chief.

Clearly the two appraisers were not adverse parties within the contemplation of the rule.

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Bluebook (online)
706 S.W.2d 634, 1985 Tenn. App. LEXIS 3236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shelby-county-v-kingsway-greens-of-america-inc-tennctapp-1985.