...or what you demand.
Irony can be quite delicious at times.
No, I'm not talking about revenge, just the sort of irony that occurs when someone unexpectedly gets what they deserve. You see, it seems that my beloved hometown of Greenville recently forced three property owners to sell three prime tracts of land to the city. One of these, in particular, had been appraised by the city for $733,000, which is what they planned to pay. The owner had it appraised for $1.29 million, although he himself considered it to be worth #2.8 million. The case went to a local jury who awarded the owner $2.6 million. Guess what? The city doesn't have that kind of money--and this is only the first of three tracts of land they forced the owners to sell to them.
Pardon me whilst I chuckle.
"The Supreme Court made it clear that it will not stand in the way when cities and counties want to force you to sell your property for any purpose the municipality determines to be in the "public interest" even though the Constitution uses the phrase "public use."
Juries, on the other hand, have the power to make the municipality pay a dear price for grabbing land. This jury did just that. Good for them. The Supreme Court made it clear that states could place further restrictions on eminent domain powers if they so choose. Our state and many others are passing legislation to do just that. The Greenville jury beat lawmakers to the punch."
This ruling could easily do much more than any law to curb this kind of abuse.
For the record, no, I don't consider this to be an excessive award. This is prime land, and it's entirely possible that an investor could have come along and offered the owner far, far more than the $2.8 million he was asking. Who's to say?
Trouble is, the market wasn't allowed to set the price. The city wrested the land out of the hands of its owner, and one thing's for darn sure: the person who can force you to sell cannot be allowed to set the price. The jury did that, and the city got quite the rude awakening.
When local governments get the message that they might be required to pay much more than they planned for a tract of land, maybe they'll be a bit less eager to abuse their power to force the owner to sell.
(Hat tip to Ralph Bristol. And thanks to Greyhawk for the Open Post!)
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