HomeMy WebLinkAbout2611 As in Lindquist, we must concede the error in the
jury's answer to question 2(a). However, the jury's net award
under question 2(c)~of $48,000.00 is well within the permissible
range of damages established by the evidence. We cannot know
for a certainty what the jury intended. But had the error in
the answer to question 2(a) been called to the court's attention 3
prior ~to the discharge of the jurors, the jurors would have had
an opportunity to reconsider all three questions pertaining to
severance damages in light of the error, and could then have
returned a new verdict reflecting their findings. That opportunity
was foreclosed upon discharge of the jury without objection.
One of the purposes of interrogatory verdicts is to
provide a means of checking the work of the jury. Here we know -
the jury erred in finding $48,000.00 as "(a) Severance damages,
if any, t~ Defendants' remaining lands as of January 26, 1976"
for the evidence presented established without contradiction
that the initial severance damages were at least $229,850.00.
Behm v. Department of Transportation, 336 So. 2d 579 (Fla-. 1976);
Dade County v. REnedo, 147 So. 2d 313 (Fla. 1952); City of
Hollywood v. Jarkesy, 343 So. 2d 886 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). But
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can we conclude absolutely that the jury did not, off the verdict
form, make the proper calculations and come up with a net award
of $48,000.00 which was within a proper range, and then, in
§ - transferring those calculations to the verdict form, erroneously
show the method of computation? We cannot make such an absolute
conclusion, and we think it was error for the trial court to
do so.
A review of the testimony of the state appraiser
reveals that the $229,850.00 figure was one of several preliminary
steps in his appraisal process. In effect, the state appraiser
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testified that even if one sets the severance damage amount at
r~ $229,850.00, enhancement to the value of the remainder more
than offsets damages caused by severance of the property taken.
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soon 304 ~A~~ 2608
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