Southern Electric Generating Co. v. Leibacher

110 So. 2d 308, 269 Ala. 9, 1959 Ala. LEXIS 417
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMarch 12, 1959
Docket7 Div. 394
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 110 So. 2d 308 (Southern Electric Generating Co. v. Leibacher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Electric Generating Co. v. Leibacher, 110 So. 2d 308, 269 Ala. 9, 1959 Ala. LEXIS 417 (Ala. 1959).

Opinion

LAWSON, Justice.

This is a condemnation proceeding brought by Southern Electric Generating Company, a corporation, in the Probate Court of Shelby County against J. H. Leibacher, Sr., and other property owners to condemn certain lands to be used in the construction and operation of a steam electric generating plant. As to Leibacher’s land, the award of the commissioners in the probate court was $4,000. An order of condemnation was entered accordingly. Leibacher appealed to the Circuit Court of Shelby County and requested trial by a jury. The jury returned a verdict, fixing the amount of Leibacher’s compensation at $11,000. Judgment followed the verdict. After a judgment was entered overruling its motion for a new trial, Southern Electric Generating Company, sometimes referred to hereinafter as Southern Electric, appealed to this court.

In the circuit court Leibacher denied that Southern Electric had the right to condemn his property and took the position that the determination of that question was for the jury.

On an appeal to the circuit court from an order of condemnation entered in the probate court the trial is de novo. § 17, Title 19, Code of 1940. The condemnor’s right to condemn as well as the amount of damages and compensation may be put in issue in the circuit court. The right to condemn is to be determined by the court without the aid of a jury, while the amount of damages and compensation to be assessed is for the jury, where a jury trial is properly requested. § 235, Constitution of 1901; City of Birmingham v. Brown, 241 Ala. 203, 2 So.2d 305; Alabama Power Co. v. Thompson, 250 Ala. 7, 32 So.2d 795, 9 A.L.R.2d 974; Moore v. City of Mobile, 248 Ala. 436, 28 So.2d 203.

The trial court correctly ruled that the question as to Southern Electric’s right to condemn was for the court’s determina *14 tion and that Southern Electric had the right to condemn the property’ here involved. Those rulings are not challenged here by cross appeal or cross-assignments of error.

Over objection the trial court required -Southern- Electric to present its proof as to its right to condemn in the •presence of the jury. This action of the trial court is assigned as error.

Southern Electric’s right to condemn was a preliminary question which the trial court should have determined outside of the presence of the jury. There was no such preliminary determination and the. evidence as to Southern Electric’s right to condemn was presented to the jury along with the evidence bearing on the amount of compensation to which Leibacher would be entitled. After the conclusion of the presentation of the evidence relating ■to :both issues, the trial court instructed ■'the jury that the' court had concluded that 'Southern Electric was entitled to condemn and ■ then instructed the jury that the amount of compensation to be awarded was for its determination.

. The Leibacher tract here involved contains 44 acres of unimproved, woodland ■situated on . the outskirts of Wilsonville in^ Shelby County. There is only one house on the property. Leibacher built the house and occupies. it from time to time. He does n.ot reside on the property. Yellow Leaf Creek, a stream which seems to be of considerable size, runs along or through some of the land. As far as this record discloses the 44 acre tract is all of the land owned by Leibacher.

Leibacher was entitled to the fair or reasonable market value o'f his land as of the day of its taking based on the use to ;whic5h'it could be most advantageously put. Blount County v. McPherson, Ala., 105 So. 2d 117. For present purposes the parties agreed that the taking occurred on June 6, 1957. The fact that the land had been used for one purpose only, the growing of timber, did not prevent Leibacher from showing the adaptability of the land for other uses including the building and operation of fishing camps. He offered evidence going to show that the best use to which the land could be put was for the operating of fishing camps of the kind shown to be operated rather generally throughout the area.

In cases of this kind, the narrow issue for the jury’s determination, the amount of the award to the landowners, should not be broadened nor the verdict of the jury influenced by the interjection of immaterial matters, especially matters calculated to be prejudicial. Whether or not the property is necessary or advisable, or whether more property is taken than necessary, and whether or not it is ever paid for or who1 pays for it, are not questions for the jury to consider nor to be brought before it in any way.

In the case now before us we can con7 ceive of no reason for placing before the jury the fact that at the time the condemna7 tion proceeding was commenced, Southern Electric’s total authorized capital stock was $2,000,000; that on towit August 17, 1956, Southern Electric sold for a cash considera^ tion of $100 per share a total of 2500 shares of common stock to Alabama Power Company and 2500 shares of such stock to Georgia Power Company and had previously paid to Alabama Property Company (its agent for acquiring land options, etc.), over $200,000 for acquisition of plant sites and coal reserves; that a capital expenditure budget aggregating $1,324,349 had been adopted. Nor do we see why the jury should have been advised as it was on the cross-examination of Southern Electric’s secretary, the connection between Alabama .Power Company, Georgia Power Company, Alabama Property Company, Southern Services, Inc., Southern Electric and The Southern Company. Yet those matters came to the jury’s attention as a result of the requirement that Southern Electric present before the jury its evidence going *15 to show its right to condemn. Most of the facts referred to above were included in documents which Southern Electric was called upon to produce in order to show its right to condemn.

Some of the documents were read to the jury by counsel for Leibacher with the consent of counsel for Southern Electric. Such consent is said to constitute a waiver of any error in requiring such evidence to be presented before the jury. We cannot agree. The documents were, in effect, required to be placed in evidence before the jury and Southern Electric would have been in a difficult position with the jury if its counsel had refused the request made upon them by counsel for Leibacher for the contents of the documents to be read to the jury.

It is argued by appellee that because the amount of the award was well within the range of the evidence, no injury can be said to have resulted to appellant as a result of such matters being introduced in evidence at the jury trial.

The award of $11,000 was less than the values fixed by Leibacher and his witnesses. Leibacher testified that the fair market value of his 44 acres of land was $22,000. The values fixed by his other witnesses ranged from $35,000 down to $15,400.

On the other hand, the jury’s award was considerably in excess of the highest estimate of value placed on the Leibacher tract by appellant’s witnesses, $4,400.

The appellant was naturally interested in getting as large an award for his land as possible, land which he did not seem anxious to lose. All of his witnesses except one owned property which was subject to condemnation by Southern Electric for the purpose of building the same generating plant.

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Bluebook (online)
110 So. 2d 308, 269 Ala. 9, 1959 Ala. LEXIS 417, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-electric-generating-co-v-leibacher-ala-1959.