South Carolina State Highway Department v. Touchberry

148 S.E.2d 747, 248 S.C. 1, 1966 S.C. LEXIS 149
CourtSupreme Court of South Carolina
DecidedMay 30, 1966
Docket18510
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 148 S.E.2d 747 (South Carolina State Highway Department v. Touchberry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
South Carolina State Highway Department v. Touchberry, 148 S.E.2d 747, 248 S.C. 1, 1966 S.C. LEXIS 149 (S.C. 1966).

Opinion

Brailsford, Justice.

The respondent, Jackson T. Touchberry, owns, operates and resides upon a 146 acre farm in Clarendon County about one mile from the town of Summerton. The South *4 Carolina State Highway Department has condemned 20.5 acres of this land as a right-of-way for Interstate-95, a main controlled access highway from northeastern United States to Florida. Upon a trial de novo in the circuit court, the the jury awarded $31,000.00 as compensation to the landowner and the department has appealed from an order of the circuit court refusing its motion for a new trial. This motion charged that the court erred in submitting to the jury for its consideration in assessing compensation four factors claimed by the landowner as elements of special • damage, to wit, increased traffic noise at the landowner’s residence, loss of breeze at the residence because of the elevation of the highway, loss of view from the residence because of such elevation, and circuity of travel between 38 acres of Touchberry’s farm lying on one side of the controlled access highway and his remaining land on the opposite side thereof. The motion also challenged the admission of evidence as to each of these factors. Each exception on this appeal charges that the court erred in overruling a specified ground of the motion for a new trial. The issue before us is thus limited to whether the court erred in overruling this motion on any of the grounds specified therein.

As to traffic noise. The defendant contends that increased traffic noise resulting from the construction of the highway near the Touchberry residence does not constitute special damage because “there is no showing that the alleged injury is special and peculiar to the landowner and not such as is commonly suffered by all others whose homes are in close proximity to. that highway.”

This contention is apparently based upon a misconception of the law applicable in assessing damages to the remaining property of a landowner where a portion of an entire tract has been condemned for a public improvement. We quote from 4 Nichols on Eminent Domain, Section 14.1, page 473: “A distinction must be drawn between consequential damages to a remainder area where part of a tract is physi *5 cally appropriated and consequential damages to a tract no part of which is physically appropriated. In the latter case the damage must be peculiar to such land and not be such as is suffered in common with the general public. In the former case it matters not that the injury is suffered in common with the general public.”

The following quotation from South Carolina State Highway Department v. Bolt, 242 S. C. 411, 131 S. E. (2d) 264, states the applicable rule:

“* * * The special damages referred to in the above statutes relate to injury or damage to the remainder of the property from which a portion is taken. They would include any damage or any decrease in actual value of the remainder of the landowner’s property which are the direct and proximate consequence of the acquisition of the right-of-way. In other words, as a general rule, special damages include all injuries or damages which cause a diminution in the value of the remaining property. As stated in 18 Am. Jur. 905, Section 265:

“ ‘When part of a parcel of land is taken by eminent domain, the owner is not restricted to compensation for the land actually taken; he is also entitled to recover for the damage to his remaining land. In other words, he is entitled to full compensation for the taking of his land and all its consequences; and the right to recover for the damage to his remaining land is not based upon the theory that damage to such land constitutes a taking of it nor is there cmy requirement that the damage he special md peculiar, or such as would he actionable at common law; it is enough that it is a consequence of the taking. The entire parcel is considered as a whole, and the inquiry is, how much has the particular public improvement decreased the fair market value of the property, taking into consideration the use for which the land was taken and all the reasonably probable effects of its devotion to that use.’ ” (Emphasis added.) 242 S. C. 417, 131 S. E. (2d) 266.

*6 The .grounds of the department’s motion for a new trial which were based upon the foregoing contention with respect to traffic noise were properly overruled.

As to loss of view and of breeze. These two elements may conveniently be considered together. The landowner testified that from his residence he could see over .most of his farm, at least seventy-five percent of the cultivated land; that the highway will be constructed on an elevation, after which his view will be restricted to about one-third of it. He further testified that the elevated highway would cut off a “wonderful breeze” from the southwest by which, because of its location,' his residence . was favored in the summertime. With respect to his testimony as to both of these items, counsel for the department interposed general objections. The only attempt at specification of any ground of objectiion was in the following colloquy between counsel and the court.

“Mr. Goolsby: Object to loss of breeze, your Honor.

“The Court: I think he is entitled to go into the, matter of the elevation. The question of credibility of the testimony is for the jury.

“Mr. Goolsby: We don’t question his credibility, if the Court please. We just question the competence and relevance as it has to do with the land value we are taking.”

.The errors assigned in the grounds of the motion for a new trial relating .to the admission of this testimony were, that, paraphrasing from the separately stated grounds, such evidence was not relevant to the issues involved. in that an álleged loss of view and loss .of breeze do not constitute either special damages or a taking of property in eminent' domain for which compensation must be paid and that such evidence was incompetent in that no qualified witness established that the elevation of the proposed highway' would be such as to deprive the landowner of any view or breeze.

It is immaterial on the issue of special damages that loss of view and loss of breeze do not constitute a taking *7 of property in eminent domain. Nor could the testimony that the highway would be constructed on the appropriated land, in proximity to the landowner’s residence, at such an elevation as to interfere with the view therefrom and to cut off favorable summer breezes, have been excluded on the theory that such interferences could not constitute special damages within the meaning of Section 33-135, Code of 1962. This section requires that any special damages resulting from the taking of a portion of a tract for a right-of-way be considered in assessing compensation. Under this statute, and others of similar impo.rt elsewhere, “(t)he different elements of damage to remaining land recoverable when part of a tract is taken are as numerous as the possible forms of injury.” 4 Nichols on Eminent Domain, Section 14.24, at 556. It requires no argument to demonstrate that the value of a homesite may be impaired by the construction in proximity thereto of a highway at such an elevation as to obstruct view and favorable breezes.

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Bluebook (online)
148 S.E.2d 747, 248 S.C. 1, 1966 S.C. LEXIS 149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/south-carolina-state-highway-department-v-touchberry-sc-1966.