1962

State Highway Comm’r v. Crockett

Supreme Court of Virginia

203 Va. 796, 127 S.E.2d 354

Commissioner condemned land for highway expansion. At trial, landowners were awarded $650 for the take and $9,530 for damage to the residue. Trial court entered judgment on the award. Commissioner objected that trial court admitted impermissible evidence, gave incorrect instructions, and that the award was grossly excessive. Supreme Court reversed and remanded. Landowners’ expert testified that another landowner in the next county received $13,000 in the same highway project for similar land. That evidence was error as there was no evidence that sale was voluntary, free from compulsion and not a compromise. Trial court deleted a sentence from an instruction on fair market value, which was not harmless.

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