A short one from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC v. 18.27 Acres, No. 19-10705 (Aug. 3, 2020) (unpub.), the court concluded that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it allowed the property owner to testify about the value of his property.
This is a ruling that should not be a surprise, given the same court's earlier published opinion holding the same thing in a case by the same pipeline condemnor against different property owners. Here, the court noted the "low bar" an owner must satisfy to testify (having "some basis" for the testimony).
One owner had some training as an appraiser. The other had experience buying and selling property in the relevant market:
Lee and Ryan Thomas satisfied the low bar of providing some basis for their valuation testimony. Lee trained as a land appraiser early in his career. Both men bought and sold property in Levy County over the years and knew what prospective purchasers would be looking for in a piece of property. And they explained the negative impact of the pipeline on their farming operations and residential life. Although Lee and Ryan provided little explanation for the specific values they testified to, we cannot say their testimony was purely speculative or that the district court abused its considerable discretion in admitting it.
Slip op. at 8.
And the beat goes on.
Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC v. 18.27 Acres, No. 19-10705 (11th Cir. Aug. 3, 2020) (unpub.)
