State ex rel. Department of Highways v. Burden

1959 OK 60, 338 P.2d 154, 1959 Okla. LEXIS 408
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 14, 1959
DocketNo. 38311
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1959 OK 60 (State ex rel. Department of Highways v. Burden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Department of Highways v. Burden, 1959 OK 60, 338 P.2d 154, 1959 Okla. LEXIS 408 (Okla. 1959).

Opinion

BLACKBIRD, Justice.

This appeal is from a judgment in condemnation proceedings instituted by plaintiff in error, as condemnor, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, against the defendants in error, as defendants. As the defendant in error, Haskell Burden, is the owner and condemnee of the property and the bank named as the other defendant in error made no appearance at the trial, or in this appeal, Burden is the party we will hereinafter refer to as defendant.

The premises involved is a “drive-in” Dairy Queen, or King, located in Sayre, Oklahoma, on a corner lot shaped like a “V”, formed by the junction of Sayre Avenue and U. S. Highway 66. The condemnation of that part of defendant’s dot in the tip, or point, of the “V” was made necessary by plaintiff’s widening and improvement of the named highway, which said improvement included the construction of curbing along the southern edge of the highway parallel to the northern boundary 'of defendant’s property. It was upon the construction of this curbing, with driveway openings therein, affording Highway 66 motorists less access to his drive-in’s parking space than they had before, that defendant based part of his claims for damages.

Plaintiff’s original petition, filed in January, 1957, described, by metes and bounds, an area of 126 square feet as the property being condemned, but a few days before the trial in February, it filed a “Partial Abandonment * * * ” which reduced the area taken to only 43 square feet, which was already in use, after the shortening and rounding off of the sharp point of the “V” with the highway’s new paving and curbing.

Plaintiff’s damages from the taking of the 126 square feet, originally selected for condemnation, was assessed at $1,500 in the Report filed by the three court-appointed commissioners. One of these commissioners, Paul Kenner, gave testimony at the trial, as a witness for defendant, to the effect that defendant’s damages were more than $2,400. According to some of defendant’s witnesses, the condemnation reduced the value of this property no more than some $1,500 or $2,000, while others gave testimony, parts of which tended to show that such damages were as great as $6,000. The defendant himself testified that the market value of the Dairy King premises before the condemnation was $10,500. Upon being asked by his counsel, during his direct examination, upon what he predicated that figure, defendant testified: “I was offered that for it.” Because of this answer, plaintiff’s counsel moved for a mistrial, but his motion was overruled after the court admonished the jury to disregard the witness’ quoted answer. On redirect examination defendant testified that the market value of the drive-in premises, after the condemnation, was only $6,500. A subsequent part of his redirect examination was as follows:

“Q* * * * Where did you get this figure ? A. I had it sold for that.
[157]*157“Q. Made in a contract? Yes.” A.

Thereupon plaintiff’s counsel again moved for a mistrial and this motion was also overruled after the court had again admonished the jury not to consider defendant’s testimony as to how he arrived at the figure he named.

Defense counsel states, without contradiction, that at the close of the trial, the jury viewed the premises. After its deliberations, it returned a verdict for plaintiff in the principal sum of $2,250; and judgment was entered accordingly. Upon the overruling of its motion for a new trial, plaintiff perfected the present appeal.

Plaintiff’s argument for reversal is set forth under three propositions. The third one is: “That the verdict is contrary and in disregard to the court’s instructions.” The only one of the court’s instructions referred to is the 11th one, by which the jury was told, in effect, that, under the law, plaintiff had the right and authority to build curbs at the edge of the paving on the “highway side” of defendant’s property. This instruction bears some relation to portions of the testimony tending to show that part of the damages to the value of defendant’s premises, as a site for a drive-in business, resulted from plaintiff’s improvement of the highway consisting, more particularly, in reducing (by construction of the curbing on that side of it) the space for ingress and egress of highway vehicles to and from defendant’s premises. The evidence tends to show that, before the highway improvement, tourists and other potential patrons of defendant’s establishment could drive into and park on its off-street parking space, or driveway, at any point along its entire highway frontage of 130.42 feet, whereas, after the curb construction, this footage was reduced to two driveways totalling 80 feet in width, one of which was back of defendant’s building, rather than abreast, or in front, of it, and served defendant’s property and a nearby tourist court jointly. Defendant does not deny plaintiff’s right, or authority, to build the curbing. The unsoundness of plaintiff’s arguments results from speciously assuming, or deducing that, because of such authority, it owed defendant nothing for damages resulting from its exercise. None of the authorities plaintiff cites supports the conclusion it draws from the premise referred to. Both parties herein recognize that in condemnations of this kind, the condemnee’s compensable injury is not limited to the value of the tangible property actually carved out of, or taken from, his original premises; but, that it also includes consequential damages to the value of the property which remains after the taking. Finley v. Board of County Com’rs, Okl., 291 P.2d 333, involved condemnation, for U.S. Highway 77’s improvement, of a strip of land across the front of Oklahoma City’s Rail Fence Tourist Court. The condemnees in that case claimed, as a part of the damages to their property, the detrimental effect of the involved highway improvement upon access to said property from the highway. They contended in the appeal, that the trial court’s instructions did not submit such items to the jury for consideration and assessment as part of their damages; and that said court should therefore have given particular requested instructions. This court did not uphold their argument with reference to the effect of the instructions given, but we did recognize the condemnees’ right to consideration of such injuries as a part of their consequential damages. Therefore, if the jury in this case did consider the evidence on the element of “access”, or ingress and egress, in arriving at the lump sum of damages named in its general verdict, it was within its proper prerogative. In this connection, notice Grand River Dam Authority v. Misenhimer, 195 Okl. 682, 161 P.2d 757, and the cases therein cited. Nor can we concur in plaintiff counsel’s statement that defendant “suffered no damages” from the curbing’s erection because the two openings or driveways left therein gave highway traffic “more than ample access” thereto. The record furnishes insufficient evi-dentiary basis for such a statement, which [158]*158concerns a matter of special injury which the jury, after viewing the premises, was in a much better position to pass upon than are we.

In Plaintiff’s first proposition, it contends, in substance, that the trial judge erred in refusing to declare the mistrial plaintiff’s counsel is hereinbefore shown to have twice requested. In its second proposition it contends, in substance, that defendant’s recovery was excessive, appearing to have been made under the influence of passion and prejudice; and that it is not sustained by sufficient evidence, and is contrary to law.

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Bluebook (online)
1959 OK 60, 338 P.2d 154, 1959 Okla. LEXIS 408, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-department-of-highways-v-burden-okla-1959.