Olympia Light & Power Co. v. Harris

Citations

• 58 Wash. 410
• 108 P. 940
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 948

Syllabus

<p>Eminent Domain—Rights to Be Acquired—Stipulations—Damages—Restrictions. In eminent domain proceedings by a power company seeking to create a storage basin by raising the waters of a lake and flooding lands, the relator may at the trial restrict its use so as to permit the landowner to exercise riparian rights for which he seeks damages, provided that they be exercised without damage to relator’s dikes and dams; since the limitations and restrictions may be embodied in the decree and given weight by the jury determining the damages.</p> <p>Eminent Domain—Trial—Consolidated Actions—Separate Verdicts. On the trial of actions for the condemnation of separate tracts of land held by different owners consolidated for convenience, in which separate verdicts for the damages were to be rendered, it is error to treat the tracts involved as one tract in the instructions to the jury; and the value of the land taken in each action, and the damage to lands not taken, must be separately determined.</p> <p>Same—Damages'—Measure oe Damages. In eminent domain proceedings to appropriate lands to be flooded, the measure of damages is the fair market value of the lands taken irrespective of any benefit, and the damage, if any, to the lands not taken.</p> <p>Same—Damage—Evidence—Admissibility. In eminent domain proceedings to appropriate lands for a storage basin, nonexpert evidence that a ridge one thousand feet wide, proposed to be used as one of the retaining walls, would be insufficient for that purpose and would permit leakage, is inadmissible as conjectural; for if ineffectual, damages could be ascertained and recovered.</p>