State Highway Board v. Bridges

3 S.E.2d 907, 60 Ga. App. 240, 1939 Ga. App. LEXIS 557
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJuly 1, 1939
Docket27353
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 3 S.E.2d 907 (State Highway Board v. Bridges) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Highway Board v. Bridges, 3 S.E.2d 907, 60 Ga. App. 240, 1939 Ga. App. LEXIS 557 (Ga. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

MacIntyre, J.

The State Highway Board instituted against Miss Buth Bridges a proceeding to condemn a strip of land across the front of her property and along the side of an old highway, the amount of land to be taken across the frontage of 461 feet being fourteen one-hundredths of one acre with shade trees thereon. The plaintiff in error contends that on the trial the judge erred in the charge to the jury, by stating that the measure of recovery for the part of the land actually taken was its '“fair and reasonable value,” and failed to limit the recovery to the reasonable “market value.” The constitution of Georgia provides (Code, § 2-301) : “In cases of necessity, private ways may be granted upon just compensation being first paid by the applicant. Private property shall not be taken, or damaged, for public purposes, without just and adequate compénsation being first paid.” Beferring to lands taken under eminent domain, the Code, § 36-504, declares: “The assessors, or a majority of them, shall assess the value of the property taken or used, or damage done, and shall also assess the consequential damages to the property not taken, and deduct from such consequential damages the consequential benefits to be derived by the owner from the operation of its franchise by the corporation, or by the carrying on of the business of the corporation or person taking or damaging the property: Provided, the consequential benefits assessed shall in no case exceed the consequential damages assessed: Provided further, that nothing in this section shall be so construed as to deprive the owner of the actual value of his property so taken or used.” (Italics ours.) Thus we have this statute referring to the “value” of the property taken, not “market value,” and the constitution of our State saying that just and adequate compensation shall be paid. The constitution does not say that the “market value” of the property taken shall be paid. On the other hand, the statute says that nothing in this section shall be so construed as to deprive the owner of the '“actual value” of his property so taken. It does not say the “market value.” The statute here is applying the word “value” to the property in an eminent-domain proceeding, and expressly qualifies it only by the word “actual.” Generally speaking, the measure of damages for the property taken would be its market value, for its '“market value would coincide with its actual value.” It is sometimes the ease that there would be little opportunity of selling in the market, as an isolated parcel [243]*243of land, the little strip of land taken, although its taking might materially lessen the value of the land remaining. The “value” of land taken in a proceeding of this kind against a small strip of land embraces not necessarily the “value” of the strip of land taken as an isolated parcel of land, but such additional “value” as attaches to it by reason of its connection with the adjacent land of the same owner. Scott v. St. Paul &c. Ry. Co., 21 Minn. 322; Dean v. County Board of Education, 210 Ala. 256 (97 So. 741).

So we think this statute, in using the word “value” when referring to part of the land here taken, would, under the circumstances at least, be better understood by the jury when qualified by the words as used by the judge, “fair and reasonable value,” than if qualified by “market value.” We think it would more likely convey to the minds of the jury the idea that the value meant was the real value in contradistinction to theoretical value. Jurors might be prone to apply the definition of “market value” as “the price property itself will command in the market” (3 Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 3387), and apply it to the strip of land as an isolated strip, and not consider it as enhancing the value of the residue of the land. Baker v. Arlington, 271 Mass. 415 (171 N. E. 462). Generally speaking, "“value” as used in reference to lands taken under eminent domain is a relative term depending on the circumstances. Thus, under some circumstances, the “value” might be the actual value, the market value, the salable value, the reasonable value and the cash value. Black’s Law Dictionary (3d ed.), 1799; 3 Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 3387. Belatively to a little narrow strip on the front of the property which is actually taken, as is involved in this case, where there would have been little opportunity of selling it in the market as an isolated strip, would it not be fully as accurate and effective, in conveying the intent of the statute in describing '“value” as used in the Code, § 36-504, even though under the facts of this case the market value coincided with the just and reasonable value, to say that it means “just and reasonable value,” which is here in effect “actual value,” as it would to say it means “market value”? We think so. Wood v. Syracuse School Dist., 108 Kan. 1 (193 Pac. 1050); Lawrence v. Boston, 19 Mass. 126. The jury were to determine in this case, first, the “value” of the property actually taken by the highway department; second, the damage, if any, in excess of the bene[244]*244.(its, to the remainder of the adjacent property owned by the defendant; and the two added together would be the amount of the total recovery.

The judge in effect charged that in determining or estimating the damages in this case the jury should take into consideration first, the '“actual value,” or the fair and reasonable value of the strip of land sought to be condemned by the plaintiff; and second, the benefits or improvements, if any, and the damages (disadvantages), if any, resulting to the remainder of the land not taken by the plaintiff, from the appropriation by the plaintiff of the strip of land in question for the purpose of its highway; that the benefits to be considered and allowed by the jury are the direct and peculiar benefits, if anjr, which result to the remainder of the land not appropriated by the plaintiff; not the general benefits which .the defendant derives, in common with other landowners in the vicinity, from the building of the road; neither should the jury, in estimating the damages in this case, take into consideration such inconveniences and disadvantages (damages) to the defendant as are consequences of the lawful and proper use of the road, in so far as the same are common to other landowners in the neighborhood, portions of whose lands are not taken; and then qualified the recovery of the damage to the property not taken; and then explained’ to the jury in detail that under the statute the excess, if any, of the consequential damages to the (adjacent) land not taken over improvements or benefits may be' recovered, but the excess of benefits to the land not taken over consequential damages can not be recovered, in view of the fact that the statute so states. The charge was not reversible error because, as contended by the plaintiff in error, "“the sole test to be applied is the market value of the land not taken, before the strip is taken and the improvements done, and the market value of the remainder of. the land after the strip of land is taken'off and the improvements made. If the market value is less, there is a damage. If the market value is greater, there is a benefit. The court utterly failed to instruct the jury upon this question or to give the jury any measure by which they could determine whether or not the land had been benefited or damaged.” We can not agree that this is the sole test; but, generally speaking, the writer prefers this test as being “clean cut” and not complicated. We think the simplest and most satis[245]

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Bluebook (online)
3 S.E.2d 907, 60 Ga. App. 240, 1939 Ga. App. LEXIS 557, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-highway-board-v-bridges-gactapp-1939.