Eminent Domain Law | Going to Trial

I have an eminent domain trial on Monday. The facts are pretty simple. The state agency needed some properties to build public infrastructure. The taking consists of 0.6 acres. On that acreage sits a mobile home that was built in 1975, a 30x50 storage building that was built in 1975, and a 30x88 storage building that was built in 1960. The rental house is in fairly good shape. It was rented out at the time of taking. But the storage sheds were another story. They were standing and functional, but the big one had broken windows and missing siding and missing roof panels. The small one worked okay but was clearly getting on in years.

The state (I'm on their side this time) hired a certified appraiser who used all three recognized methods of property appraisal - cost replacement, sales comparison, and income capitalization (to be discussed more fully at a later time). After utilizing these three methods, he arrived at a value of the property of $55,000 (this is a property on the outskirts of a smallish farm town). His valuation of just compensation was based on facts and figures the market demonstrated. At an earlier hearing three disinterested appraisers determined just compensation to be $60,000.

Now, what does the landowner have to say? All he has to say is that he thinks the property is worth $195,000 because he can't go out and find a property like the one he currently has. He has no comparable sales, he has not done a correct replacement cost approach, and he has nothing other than his own story to rely on. $195,000! And he is going to trial armed only with this information.

Knowing this, wouldn't you think I'd be just as confident as all get out? Well, you would be thinking wrong. The wonderful thing about juries is that they provide an opportunity for anyone to be heard on an even ground. The very scary thing about juries is that often you have no idea what factors they will give weight to, and depending on which factors those are, the jury's decision could be dramatically different than you expected. Just so you know, if I had to guess I'd put the verdict at $75,000. It is a natural tendency for people to want to try to reach a middle ground. In these cases, it seems like they skew a little more toward the side they think has presented the best evidence (in this case it is my side).

So, lesson for the day, juries are great, but they are truly a crap shoot.