Los Angeles County v. Reyes

HAYNES, C. This is an action to condemn certain lands for road purposes, by virtue of the provisions of article 6, title 6, part 3, of the Political Code, and of title 7, part 3, of the Code of Civil Procedure. The contemplated road is one designated in section 2692, Political Code, as a private road. Proceedings were duly taken by the board of supervisors, under the statute, upon the petition of Cheesebrough, to lay out and establish the road. Viewers were appointed, and reported. But defendants, through whose lands the road was surveyed, refused to accept the compensation awarded; and this proceeding was ordered by the board to be taken in accordance with the statute. The cause was tried by a jury, who found the special facts authorizing the condemnation of the land for the purposes of a private road, and assessed the damages and benefits accruing to the defendants, and the value of the land proposed to be taken; and the court, having made its findings to the effect that all the allegations of the complaint were true, and the allegations of the answer untrue, rendered the appropriate judgment. A motion for a new trial made by defendants was denied, and this appeal from the judgment and order denying a new trial is taken by the defendant Pablo Reyes alone.

The first point urged by appellant is that the evidence is insufficient to justify the verdict of the jury and the findings of the court, especially as to the damages awarded the [777]defendants, and the practicability of some other route than that selected by the viewers, and adopted by the court and jury. As to the first of these particulars the appellant" cannot complain, if, as urged by counsel, there was no evidence, since the burden of proving the damages in condemnation cases rests upon the defendant. Counsel contend that the true rule is to determine the effect of the proposed change upon the market value of the property affected. Such evidence would, of course, cover the entire question of compensation, viz., the value of the land taken, and the damage to the land not taken, diminished by the benefits accruing to the defendant from the opening of the road; but it is not contended that defendant was prevented from giving evidence of such market value. The jury assessed the damages to the land not taken at $50, and the benefits at the same sum, and we think there was sufficient evidence to sustain each of those findings; and, as to the value of the land taken, there was evidence which, if uncontradicted, would have justified a less valuation than that found by the jury. All the facts necessary to enable the jury to make a proper estimate of the compensation to be awarded the defendant were as fully presented as could be reasonably required, and upon most points the evidence was sharply conflicting. As to whether it was practicable to locate the road upon section or quarter section lines, or by the route of Macala Canyon, the evidence was also conflicting, but, we think, largely preponderated against each of those routes, and that the selection made is fully justified by the evidence.