In at least one case in this century the outcome of an eminent domain court case turned out right. Instead of simply taking the land and paying cents on the dollar, one man got his price.
In the case of
C.E. Atwell of Monett Missouri. the concept of Eminent Domain worked out correctly. Mr. Atwell's gripe wasn't the City of Monett taking his 1.11 acres of land for a street improvement, but the price the city was willing to pay for removing the strip from his property and thereby reducing the value of the property as a whole.
The City of Monett offered only $18,000 for the strip of land which was to come from a parcel of 14.07 acres Mr Atwell owned.
Mr. Atwell made a request for $140,000 instead. The city used a bogus formula based on an old sales price for a piece of land on the other side of the street to determine the price to offer.
Not so fast though! When the case went to court and a jury, the jury found for the plaintiff (Mr. Atwell) The person serving as the Attorney for the City was a Mr. R.B. Regan. From the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission.
The jury awarded Mr. Atwell $112,765 PLUS interest from the time of the condemnation proceeding - six and a half years!
Mr. Regan had the following statement to make after the trial:
"We believe there were jurors who were probably impacted by recent publicity about eminent domain, who had negative opinions toward [condemnation]," Pyle said. "We believe that didn't help the city."
DUH!
The total paid out to Mr. Atwell was $147,583.84, nearly $7,500 more than the original asking price. The City was also out about $20,000 for legal costs.
Way to go Mr. Atwell, the preponderance of these cases don't turn out as well for the average citizen. The overbearing governmental cretins tend to take the land and run. And in this case at least the land was actually used for the public benefit instead of just being given to another fat cat supporter of the City government.
Email
Print
Share
Eminent Domain - Citizen Wins!
