State, Department of Transportation & Development v. Wahlder

560 So. 2d 705, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 883, 1990 WL 47913
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 18, 1990
DocketNo. 88-831
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 560 So. 2d 705 (State, Department of Transportation & Development v. Wahlder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State, Department of Transportation & Development v. Wahlder, 560 So. 2d 705, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 883, 1990 WL 47913 (La. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinions

YELVERTON, Judge.

ON REMAND FROM SUPREME COURT

This expropriation compensation appeal is before us on remand from the Louisiana Supreme Court. The issue on remand is severance damages to a tract which we referred to in our original opinion on appeal, 554 So.2d 233, as the southern remainder. As to that tract, on the appeal we set aside a judgment N.O.V. granted by the trial judge, who made an award of severance damages, and we reinstated the jury’s verdict, which was based on a finding that there were no severance damages to the southern remainder.

Michael and Nurit Wahlder, the landowners/defendants, applied to the Louisiana Supreme Court for review of our decision. The Supreme Court granted a writ and remanded the case to us with instructions “to reconsider assignment of error No. 2 in light of the Alexandria Ordinance on zoning.” 558 So.2d 561.

Assignment of Error No. 2 in the writ application declared that we erred when we made a determination that there was no severance damages to the southern most half of the expropriated property.

In their original application to the Supreme Court for a writ the relators argued that our error was in failing to properly consider certain alleged access problems. After the original writ application was filed the Wahlders filed a supplemental application attaching a certified copy of the zoning ordinance for the city of Alexandria. In their supplemental application, the Wahld-ers stated that the zoning ordinance was being attached to support an additional argument under Assignment of Error No. 2. The additional argument was that we erred when we failed to take into account the setback requirements, particularly on new construction, of the Alexandria Ordinance on zoning. The Wahlders argued that the setback requirements in the ordinance will readily show that the property is rendered virtually useless for new construction. The remand orders us to reconsider the assignment of error in the light of this zoning ordinance. We shall now do so.

So that the reader will better understand our analysis, we must explain that this is the first opportunity we have had to see this ordinance. The attachment of the zoning ordinance to the writ application was the first appearance of the zoning ordinance into this case, which was tried and decided by a jury back in early 1988. The zoning ordinance was not introduced in evidence at the trial, the trial judge did not take judicial notice of it, it was not before the jury that tried the case, there was no mention of it in the instructions to the jury, it was not mentioned by the trial judge when he granted a judgment N.O.V. in the case, and it was not in the record on appeal. We mention these facts early in this opinion so that the reader will understand that we are, in effect, now reviewing a judgment N.O.V. and a jury verdict based on new evidence.

When we initially reviewed this record and rendered our opinion, we were aware that there were setback restrictions and sight line requirements imposed by the City of Alexandria. Setback restrictions were discussed by all four of the appraisers in the case during their testimony to the jury, and considered by the appraisers in their evaluation of severance damages in the [707]*707case. It is clear from the testimony at trial that everyone knew there was a zoning ordinance, because on pages 534 and 535, just ten pages shy of the end of the testimony, the fact that it was not in evidence was discussed by the attorneys and the trial judge in the presence of the jury. If anyone believed there was a discrepancy between what the ordinance required and what the experts thought it required, nothing about such a discrepancy got into the record. The jury heard all the testimony, and both sides mentioned setback restrictions in their oral arguments to the jury, thus we assume that the jury was aware of setback requirements. However, since the ordinance itself was never introduced, nor quoted from, nor charged to the jury, and the language of the ordinance was never used in the questioning of the experts, nor in their responses to questions, we take it for granted that the jury was not aware of the setback requirements as precisely expressed in the language of the ordinance.

We have thoroughly reviewed this record again. We find that the information imparted by oral testimony to the jury — for the most part testimony elicited by the landowners’ attorney — regarding setback restrictions, differs somewhat from the setback restrictions that appear in the ordinance which has now made its post-trial appearance into the case.

Inasmuch as the remand requires that we reconsider the award of severance damages in the light of the ordinance on zoning, we will regard the ordinance applicable to the case as new evidence judicially noticed by the Supreme Court pursuant to La. R.S. 13:3712. We herewith order the Clerk of Court, Parish of Rapides, to receive the exhibit into evidence in this case, giving it Exhibit Number C-l.

THE ALEXANDRIA ORDINANCE ON ZONING

The relators rely on two regulations in the ordinance. The first is Art. VI, § 28-6.15 IV(d) which reads as follows:

On a corner lot in any district, nothing shall be erected, placed, planted or allowed to grow in such a manner as materially to impede vision between a height of two and one-half (2½) and ten (10) feet above the center line grades of the intersecting streets in the area bounded by the street lines of such corner lots and a straight line joining said street lines at points which are thirty (30) feet distant from the point of intersection, measured along said street lines.

The second is Art. VI, § 28-6.15 IX, which reads as follows:

Setback requirements for new construction in residential, business, commercial and industrial zones: All new building construction to be located adjacent to an arterial street, as designated by the adopted master street plan, shall be set back at least fifty (50) feet from the center line of the existing street right-of-way for two-way traffic flow and shall be set back at least forty (40) feet from the center line of the existing street right-of-way for one-way traffic flow.

TESTIMONY AT THE TRIAL RELATING TO SETBACK RESTRICTIONS

Our reconsideration of the award in the light of the ordinance necessarily begins with a discussion of setback requirements as revealed by the appraisers and heard by the jury. After that, we will explain the difference between the setback restrictions as heard by the jury, and the restrictions as we interpret them in the ordinance. Thereafter, we will examine that difference to determine whether the landowners are entitled to more money.

As pointed out in our original opinion, severance damage was claimed as to two remainders, a 7,476 square foot piece of property to the north, and a 13,991 square foot remainder to the south. It is the southern, larger remainder, that is the subject of writ application Assignment of Error No. 2. The southern remainder is a quadrilateral piece of commercial property.

William S. McCampbell, Jr., a real estate appraiser, testified for the landowners. He said that in Alexandria you can’t build within 20 or 25 feet of the street. His opinion was that given all of the street [708]*708right-of-way setbacks applicable to property “it just brings the lot smaller and smaller”.

Joe Glorioso, a real estate appraiser, testified for the landowners. He said:

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Related

State Thru DOTD v. Wahlder
647 So. 2d 481 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1994)
State, Department of Transportation & Development v. Wahlder
565 So. 2d 446 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1990)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
560 So. 2d 705, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 883, 1990 WL 47913, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-department-of-transportation-development-v-wahlder-lactapp-1990.