140 So. 485 | La. | 1932
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *304 This is a proceeding to expropriate a right of way, 80 feet wide, through the defendant's farm, for a concrete public highway. The farm has an area of 320 acres, is in a high state of improvement and cultivation, and is the defendant's place of residence. The highway as now located is a graveled road extending along a part of the southern boundary and along the western boundary of the farm, and the residence and other buildings are located in proper proximity and relation to the highway. The right of way for the new highway will extend from a point on the south boundary and near the southeast corner of the farm, in a direction N. 21° 51' W., to and through a point on the north boundary and very near the northwest corner of the farm, and will so bisect the farm as to leave the two tracts almost of equal area and almost triangular in shape. The length of the *305 proposed right of way, through the defendant's farm, is nearly a mile, and the area is nearly 9 acres — 8.871 acres as calculated by the highway commission's engineer, and 8.98 acres as calculated by the engineer who testified for the defendant.
The defendant, in his answer to the suit, claimed $1,000 as the value of the area to be expropriated and $8,500 damages to the remaining property. The jury of freeholders assessed the value of the land to be taken at $1,000 and the damages to the remaining property at $2,500, and the district judge gave judgment accordingly for $3,500. The highway commission has appealed, and the defendant, answering the appeal, prays that the amount of the judgment be increased to $9,500.
It is well settled, of course, that an award made by a jury of freeholders in an expropriation proceeding is deemed to be the impartial estimate of twelve disinterested expert appraisers, and is entitled to the approval of the court, unless, from the evidence in the case, the amount awarded is manifestly wrong. The amount allowed in this case for the value of the area of land to be taken, $1,000, is more than the same acreage would be worth if taken off of either end or side of the farm; but, considering the shape and location of the area taken, $1,000 is not an excessive price. The amount allowed for damages to the remaining part of the farm, $2,500, is for destruction of crops (conceded to be $125.00), and the expense of moving and rearranging the residence and two tenant houses, and of building and maintaining nearly two miles of fence, and the inconvenience and loss of time of transferring the farm laborers and teams and implements from one *306 side to the other side of the highway, in the cultivation of the farm. The record does not show how the jury apportioned these costs and expenses, but we take it for granted that they did make an apportionment in order to arrive at the total of $2,500; and we do not believe that we could by any method of apportionment obtain a more accurate result. Hence we affirm the estimate of the jury.
The only question of law presented comes from the refusal of the judge to charge the jury, at the request of the attorneys for the highway commission, that any damages that the defendant might otherwise be entitled to should be offset to the extent of any general benefit or advantage that might result from the construction of the concrete highway through the defendant's property. We assume that, by the expression "general benefit or advantage," was meant the benefit or advantage that might result generally to all of the owners of lands adjacent to or in the vicinity of the highway. The attorneys for the highway commission cite and rely upon three decisions on the subject, viz. New Orleans Pacific Railway Co. v. Gay, Tutor, 31 La. Ann. 430; New Orleans Pacific Railway Co. v. Murrell, 34 La. Ann. 536; and Abney v. Texarkana, Shreveport Natchez Railroad Co.,
The judgment is affirmed.