121 Ga. App. 188 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1970
It was proper to allow the jury to consider the opinion of an expert appraiser, who had knowledge and experience with respect to effecting changes in zoning restrictions, that the property being subjected to a perpetual drainage easement could be rezoned from residential to commercial use, that this would be virtually automatic if the property qualified as “commercial highway” property by reason of proximity to an arterial highway, and, assuming that rezoning could be accomplished, his opinion of the value of the property. The final instructions of the court to the jury are explicit in providing appropriate guidelines for the jury to follow in considering testimony of this nature in arriving at the value of the property being taken as of the date of taking. “It has long been the policy of the Georgia appellate courts to be liberal in allowing matters to be considered by the jury which might affect their collective mind in determining the just and adequate compensation to be paid the condemnee. . . In short, the Georgia courts have permitted almost any possibility to be submitted to the jury which might shed light on the true value of the property, subject only to the limitations that the matter must not be merely remote or speculative and its consideration
Judgment affirmed.
