STATE, DEPT. OF TRANSP. AND DEVELOPMENT v. Shannon-Page Inv. Co.

478 So. 2d 702, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 10110
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 7, 1985
Docket84-737
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 478 So. 2d 702 (STATE, DEPT. OF TRANSP. AND DEVELOPMENT v. Shannon-Page Inv. Co.) 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, DEPT. OF TRANSP. AND DEVELOPMENT v. Shannon-Page Inv. Co., 478 So. 2d 702, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 10110 (La. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

478 So.2d 702 (1985)

STATE of Louisiana, Through the DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
SHANNON-PAGE INVESTMENT COMPANY, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 84-737.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

November 7, 1985.

*703 Stafford, Stewart and Potter, Grove Stafford, Jr., Alexandria, for defendants-appellants.

Edward A. Michael, Baton Rouge, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before FORET, DOUCET and YELVERTON, JJ.

FORET, Judge.

In this expropriation suit, the learned trial court has furnished us with excellent reasons for judgment, and we gratefully indulge ourselves in adopting them as our own, except for minor editorial variations.

"This expropriation suit was filed ... by the State of Louisiana, Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), pursuant to L.S.A. R.S. 48:441 et seq., to take a parcel of land on which a warehouse building is situated ... owned by Shannon-Page Investment Company. The taking is in connection with the construction of I-49, a limited access highway to run through downtown Alexandria. The lessee of the subject property, Rapides Grocery Company, was originally a party to this suit but has voluntarily dismissed its claim for a leasehold interest without prejudice.

*704 "The DOTD deposited $86,500.00 in the Registry of the Court as its estimate of just compensation to the expropriatee. Shannon-Page answered the lawsuit alleging the $86,500. deposit to be inadequate and prayed for $350,000.00 as just compensation plus attorney's fees and costs. At the time of trial the parties stipulated that the taking was proper and that the value of the land at the time of taking was $47,000.00 (14,930 square feet at $3.15 per square foot). They also stipulated that the highest and best use of the subject property is commercial and that the square footage of the warehouse building is 20,900. Therefore, the only issues to be decided are the just compensation for the building, fees of expert witnesses, and attorney's fees to be awarded, if any.

"The subject building is an old two story commercial warehouse on the fringe of Alexandria's central business district. It is approximately 50 to 60 years old with 12 inch thick brick exterior walls and a frame made of wooden timbers. It has a loading dock which fronts on a side street, and a dock which fronts on a railroad track.... The building was originally used as an ice house. Subsequently, it was used as a furniture warehouse by Hemenway Furniture Company, Ltd., various members of the Hemenway family and Hemenway Company, Inc. until its 1972 sale to Shannon-Page Investment Company who leased the premises to Hemenway's for its continued use as a furniture warehouse. Shannon-Page subsequently leased the premises to Rapides Grocery Company and then to Rapides General Hospital who occupied the building at the time of taking. Thus, the property had been leased to various concerns since Shannon-Page acquired it in 1972.

"Shannon-Page urges the Court to award the replacement cost of the building without any deduction for depreciation in accord with the principles espoused in State [Through] Department of Highways v. Constant, 369 So.2d. 699 (La.1979); Monroe Redevelopment Agency v. [Succession of] Kusin, 398 So.2d. 1159 (La.App. 2nd Cir.1981); and City of Shreveport v. Standard Printing Company of Shreveport, Inc., 427 So.2d. 1304 (La.App. 2nd Cir.1983) and affirmed at 441 So.2d. 737 (La.1983). The DOTD submits that the principles of these cases apply only to situations in which there is an ongoing business on the expropriated property operated by the expropriatee and not to rental property held for investment purposes. This Court finds that, under the record in this case, an award of the fair market value will fully compensate the property owner and to extend Constant and its progeny to the present situation would not be proper.

"Article 1, Section 4 of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution requires that property owners be compensated to the full extent of their loss. As interpreted by our jurisprudence, the property owner must be placed in as good a position pecuniarily as enjoyed prior to the taking. State v. Constant, supra; State [Dept. of Hwys.] v. Bitterwolf, 41[5] So.2d. 196 (La.1982). In Constant the Court awarded the undepreciated replacement cost of a marina loading dock as necessary to place the owner in as good a pecuniary position as he enjoyed prior to the taking even though the award was greater than the fair market value. As the Court stated:

`The evidence so taken does not prove any other method by which the owners may be placed in as good a position pecuniarily as they enjoyed prior to the taking. Without the replacement of their loading area, the[ir] marina business operations will be substantially destroyed.' Constant, supra, at 702.

"In the present case, the property owner does not have an ongoing business which would be disrupted or `substantially destroyed'. Shannon-Page is free to reinvest the received proceeds in income producing property similar in nature to the property expropriated. The amount of compensation necessary to accomplish this is the fair market value of the expropriated property. Shannon-Page would have the value of the building, and could, therefore, purchase a similar building which would generate a *705 similar amount of income. This Court, therefore, finds that an award of the fair market value of the property according to its highest and best use would place Shannon-Page in the same financial position as it enjoyed prior to the taking.

"Shannon-Page urges in its trial brief that `market value' is no longer the standard by which the State can take property, and that the undepreciated replacement cost method of compensation is mandated by the new Constitution and recent appellate decisions. This is not a correct interpretation of the law. The property owner should be placed in as good a pecuinary position as he enjoyed prior to the taking by whichever method of calculating the loss is proper in a given case. Certain situations require that replacement cost be awarded in order to fully compensate the property owner, especially in unique situations in which an ongoing business is threatened. In others, the fair market value will fully compensate the property owner. As stated in Constant:

`We do not, by these rulings, announce any general principle that replacement cost is always the [most] appropriate measure of awarding a landowner compensation for the taking of a physical asset used in his business, nor that [the] depreciation of the former asset should never be considered.
`Generally, we assume, the landowners may be compensated fully by other approaches than by awarding [them] the replacement [cost] of the improvement taken, especially where (unlike the present instance) the property is not shown to be both unique in nature and location and also indispensable to the conduct of the landowners' business operations on the site from which a part is taken. Likewise, in the usual situation the depreciated value of the asset taken will have some lessening effect on the award to landowner, since he may be fully compensated by the actual pecuniary value of the asset taken. For instance, the full compensation consitutionally provided does not require that the owner receive a new building to replace a dilapidated one which is expropriated.' Constant, supra, at 706.

"Shannon-Page also cited the Second Circuit opinions in City of Shreveport v.

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Related

STATE, DEPT. OF TRANSP. AND DEVELOPMENT v. Lobel
571 So. 2d 742 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1990)
State Through Dept. of Highways v. Bray
511 So. 2d 1300 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
State ex rel. Department of Transportation & Development v. Campisi
509 So. 2d 618 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
State, Dept. of Trans. & Dev. v. Sonnier
503 So. 2d 1144 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)

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Bluebook (online)
478 So. 2d 702, 1985 La. App. LEXIS 10110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-dept-of-transp-and-development-v-shannon-page-inv-co-lactapp-1985.