United States v. Cleveland Smith, as to Tract Q-1744

307 F.2d 49
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 19, 1962
Docket18885
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 307 F.2d 49 (United States v. Cleveland Smith, as to Tract Q-1744) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Cleveland Smith, as to Tract Q-1744, 307 F.2d 49 (5th Cir. 1962).

Opinions

CAMERON, Circuit Judge.

The appellant, United States of America, acting through the Secretary of the Army, issued its declaration of taking dated December 21, 1956, and filed its complaint on December 28, 1956 to acquire fee simple title to a number of tracts of land for public use in connection with the establishment of the Buford Dam and Reservoir Project, Georgia. One of these tracts of land was approximately sixty acres taken from a rectangular tract of approximately one hundred acres in Hall and Lumpkin Counties, Georgia, the property of the appellee, Cleveland Smith. The action, known as Civil Action No. 719, was filed at the request of the Secretary of the Army for the taking of appellee’s property under appellant’s right of eminent domain, and for the ascertainment and award of just compensation to him as its owner.

The complaint asked that an order granting immediate possession of the property be entered vesting fee simple title in appellant, “subject to existing easements for public roads and highways, public utilities, railroads and pipe lines;” and it demanded judgment that the property be condemned, that just compensation for the taking be ascertained and awarded, and that an order granting immediate possession be entered. An exhibit to the complaint estimated the proper compensation for appellee’s tract No. Q1744 at $7,600.00. Pursuant to the prayer of the complaint the District Court entered its judgment upon the declaration of taking on January 3, 1957, vesting title to said property in the appellant and the right to just compensation in appellee, the amount thereof to be ascertained, awarded and established by judgment pursuant to law.

A public road entered this one hundred acre tract at its northwest corner and meandered in a southeasterly direction through the tract to a point a little south of the center of its eastern boundary. The purpose of the government was to flood this sixty acres and the roadway traversing it. The substantially forty acres remaining after the taking consisted of three non-contiguous areas of irregular shapes, one in the northeast corner of the one hundred acre tract, of approximately eight acres, one in the southeast comer of approximately four acres, and one of approximately twenty-eight acres, extending down the middle of the tract from the northern border, about two-thirds of the way to the southern border. The two small tracts were left untouched by the existing roadway. A segment of the former road bisected the twenty-eight acre tract somewhere near its center. Appellant’s plan was to flood the road upon the land taken for a distance of one thousand or more feet on each side of this peninsula.

Appellant’s predetermined plan was carried out with the i'esult that one thousand feet of the road on the east and much more than that on the west of this peninsula, all within the bounds of Smith’s one hundred acre tract, were destroyed by overflow. The peninsula, on which were situated appellee’s home, [51]*51store, grist-mill and a half dozen other structures, was, therefore, left without access to the road which had provided his communication with the outside world.

Appellee filed an answer and a substitute answer, a part of which appellant moved to strike. But both were withdrawn before the motion was passed upon. Thereupon appellant filed a motion to limit the testimony upon the trial,

“so as to exclude any evidence offered to show alleged damages for loss of access and alleged injury to and depreciation in value of the remaining property of the former owner by virtue of loss of access from inundation of public roads and highways and for the closing of same, on the ground and for the reason that such alleged damages and injury, if extant are not com-pensable in this proceeding, and the United States has discharged its responsibility by payment of the judgment rendered in Civil Action No. 745 in this Court.”

The trial court entered an order on the foregoing motion substantially a week after its filing, the important parts of which follow:

“It is a rule that in condemnation of a part of a tract, owned in fee simple, just compensation is the' market value of the whole before condemnation, less the market value of the portion which remains after the taking of the part. United States v. Honolulu Plantation Co., 9 Cir., 182 F.2d 172, 175.
“The owner is entitled to receive the difference between the value of the whole, unaffected by the improvement, and the value of the remainder in the light of any special benefits because of the improvement and this involves consideration of damages on the one hand and any special and direct benefits on the other. * * *
“In determining just what effect the taking of the portion has had on the remainder, and in determining the amount of compensation to which the owner is entitled, the jury must ascertain that in the following manner:
“1. The jury will find the market value of the entire tract at the time of the taking, unaffected by the use to which the Government intends to put the property taken.
“2. The jury will then find the fair market value of the portion of the tract retained by the property owner after the taking, and in making this determination the jury will determine this value in the light of the contemplated use, that is, the construction of the dam and reservoir development, and in making this determination the jury will be entitled to consider the effect of the flooding of the highways on the means of access to the owner’s remaining property. United States v. Grizzard, 219 U.S. 180, [31 S.Ct. 162, 55 L.Ed. 165]; United States v. 9 Acres of Land, etc., D.C., 100 F.Supp. 378, 379.
“3. The difference will be the amount of just compensation to which the owner is entitled, as this will place him in as good position pecuniarily as he was before the taking.
“The claimant here may not recover, as a separate item, damages resulting from the Government’s taking of the public road, and for this reason, the motion of the Government to limit the testimony so as to exclude any evidence to show a separate item of damages for the loss of access is sustained.
“However, in determining the fair market value of the part remaining after the taking, the jury may consider along with the other facts and circumstances the effect, if any, that the loss of access has upon the market value of the remainder.”

During the course of the examination of appellee, he was asked by his counsel [52]*52if the water covered the road at places on his property which was condemned. Appellant’s attorney objected, stating:

“ * * * I would like to renew my objection to the introduction of any testimony as to the loss of access by the road, the Hall County section of the road going into Mr. Smith’s property, on the grounds that this property was acquired in this civil action subject to existing easements for public roads, among other things. At the time of the taking of Mr. Smith’s property the road was still there. And further, although the road was subsequently acquired by the Government in another civil action, that in the Civil Action No.

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Bluebook (online)
307 F.2d 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-cleveland-smith-as-to-tract-q-1744-ca5-1962.