St. James Roman Catholic Church Society v. State

50 A.D.2d 193, 376 N.Y.S.2d 347, 1975 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11467
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 17, 1975
DocketClaim No. 54446
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 50 A.D.2d 193 (St. James Roman Catholic Church Society v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. James Roman Catholic Church Society v. State, 50 A.D.2d 193, 376 N.Y.S.2d 347, 1975 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11467 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

Simons, J.

Claimant is the owner of 30 acres of real estate located in Chautauqua County and known as Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. On September 17, 1969 the State appropriated two parcels of it for highway purposes; Parcel 40, consisting of 11.074+ acres of undeveloped land taken for the roadbed of a new arterial highway and Parcel 46, consisting of 0.035+ acres of developed cemetery land and which included the cemetery entrance on West Oak Hill Road. West Oak Hill Road runs at an angle to the new highway and part of claimant’s frontage taken by Parcel 46 was required to grade and elevate West Oak Hill Road so that it passed over the new arterial highway. The issue raised upon this appeal is whether the damages resulting from the partial taking of the developed cemetery parcel must be valued by the income method formulated by the Court of Appeals in St. Agnes Cemetery v State of New York (3 NY2d 37). The Court of [195]*195Claims held that it did not. It awarded claimant a total of $43,420, plus interest, for all damages to the developed and undeveloped land, measured by the market data and replacement method.

Claimant first acquired the property for a parish cemetery in 1932. Before appropriation, it consisted of a tract of 12.942 acres developed as gravesites and an adjacent parcel of 17.901 acres, platted but undeveloped and unimproved, except for the installation of a roadway. The developed area was attractively landscaped and served by dirt roadways and there was an ornamental entrance of stone pillars and metal fencing on West Oak Hill Road. A drainage system consisting of piping and catch basins had been installed and a water system consisting of a well and distribution piping had been developed. Two cinder-block structures built for storage purposes and located on claimant’s property were unaffected by the taking.

Claimant has periodically added to its holdings. The most recent purchase in 1965, four years before the appropriation, consisted of the purchase of 18 Vi acres of land for the sum of $4,000 (this purchase includes the undeveloped land taken by Parcel 40).

Since 1932, upwards of 3,200 gravesites have been sold. As a result of the appropriation, 11.074+ acres of undeveloped land were taken and 3.087+ acres of undeveloped land were landlocked. The remaining 3.740 acres of low undeveloped land were adjacent to the developed cemetery area. Although this land is useable, its value has been impaired by the taking because of the necessity of hauling fill to regrade it, whereas prior to the taking claimant had planned to accomplish this by bulldozing a hill on the undeveloped land area which has now been appropriated.

The taking of Parcel 46 resulted in a loss of 0.035 acres of developed land at the front of the cemetery, including the entrance structures, for reconstruction of West Oak Hill Road. The State elevated this road about 14 feet above grade and sloped the embankment onto land retained by claimant. The grading destroyed the water well and some catch basins and drainage pipes; it eliminated 141 gravesites and required that one body be removed from the area. Additionally, this grading made the entrance to the cemetery less attractive and the entrance road now becomes slippery from the ice in the winter months.

[196]*196The trial court found that the land had a value of $1,200 per acre and awarded direct damages of $13,300 for the undeveloped land taken in Parcel 40, consequential damages of $3,400 for the landlocked undeveloped parcel and $1,500 consequential damages to the usable undeveloped land because of the necessity for filling it. It awarded $9,700 for replacement of the gate and entrance structures, $1,700 for the cost to cure the destroyed water well and $150 for reinterment of the displaced body. These findings are not contested by the State on this appeal.

The trial court found that the land in the developed area of the cemetery had a value of $1,200 per acre and the land improvements had a value of $7,000, for a total value for the developed land of $8,200. The parties agree that the court made a mathematical error in its computation of direct damages for the taking of 0.035+ acres of developed land in Parcel 46 and that the award should be $287 rather than $2,870.

The trial court also found consequential damages to the unsold 9.024 acres of developed land remaining after appropriation. Claimant’s appraiser testified that this developed land suffered a consequential loss of 25% of value. The court accepted the testimony that there was consequential damage to the land and improvements in the developed portion of the cemetery and found such damage to be $1,200 per acre or a total of $10,800.

It is this item of consequential damage which the State challenges. It claims that the court improperly used a substitution or replacement method of valuation rather than the income method approved in St Agnes Cemetery v State of New York (3 NY2d 37, supra).

The income method of valuing property having a highest and best use for cemetery purposes considers the property as an inventory of fungible gravesites, the supply of which diminishes over a period of years as the land is used and the inventory is exhausted by sales. The value of the gravesites is computed by finding the net annual sales after deducting the cost of improvements and projecting this sum over the life of the cemetery. The result is capitalized and then discounted, much as an annuity, to give it a present value reflecting the fact that the judgment against the State awards claimant dollars in hand in exchange for dollars expected from sales anticipated in the future (cf., also, 4 Nichols, Eminent Domain [197]*197[3d ed], § 12.32, subd [4], par [a], cl [i]; Ann., 42 ALR3d 1314, Condemnation-Cemetery Lands).

In the case of a partial taking, the capitalized present worth of the cemetery is measured by this formula before and after taking to determine claimant’s damages (Diocese of Buffalo v State of New York, 24 NY2d 320). The theory is that partial appropriation of cemetery land merely removes the number of graves available for sale at some future time, shortening the cemetery’s economic life.

Applying this formula to both the developed and undeveloped land, the State’s appraiser found 22,012 available lots or gravesites with a net income of $91.07 from each lot,

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Bluebook (online)
50 A.D.2d 193, 376 N.Y.S.2d 347, 1975 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11467, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-james-roman-catholic-church-society-v-state-nyappdiv-1975.