(Download) "Ark. State Highway Comm. v. Russell" by Supreme Court of Arkansas * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Ark. State Highway Comm. v. Russell
- Author : Supreme Court of Arkansas
- Release Date : January 10, 1966
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 61 KB
Description
This is an action by the State Highway Commission to condemn, in fee simple, a 28.2-acre strip across the appellees' cattle ranch. The jury fixed the landowners' damages at $26,000. The Commission's principal contention for reversal is that the trial court erred in refusing to strike the testimony of Guy C. Russell, who, together with his wife, owns the land. On direct examination Russell explained in detail the damage that he would suffer as a result of the condemnation. He valued his property at $82,800 before the taking and at $40,350 after the taking. He considered the strip actually being taken to be worth $11,200 (about $400 an acre). He attributed most of his damage, however, to the fact that the controlled-access highway to be constructed will divide his ranch into two tracts effectively separated by the proposed highway. Instead of being able to go directly from one side of his ranch to the other it will be necessary for him to travel at least four miles to cross the highway. As a practical matter Russell will be forced to operate his property as two separate ranches, with the equipment and other facilities on one side of the highway being duplicated on the other side, whereas such duplication was not necessary before the ranch was cut in two. A similar fact situation was presented in Ark. State Highway Commn. v. Union Planters Nat. Bank, 231 Ark. 907, 333 S.W.2d 904 (1960), where we observed that the controlled-access highway would bisect a plantation ""as effectively as if a high stone wall had been erected down the center of the property.""