Orange Belt Railway Co. v. Craver

Citations

• 32 Fla. 28

Syllabus

<p>1. In proceedings to condemn land for right-of-way of a railroad or canal company, all parties thereto are entitled to have the intelligent judgment of the entire jury upon the assessment of damages to be allowed ; and should it appear that the jury reached a verdict by an agreement in advance that each one ■should set down the sum to which he considered the land own•er entitled, that the aggregate of these sums should be divided by the number of the jury, and the quotient thus obtained ■should be the amount of the verdict, it will be set aside. But ■where it appears that the average of the estimates of the jurors was obtained by adding up the amounts and dividing the result by the number of the jury, and afterwards the average thus obtained was objected to by some of the jury, and upon further consideration another sum was agreed upon as a. verdict, the verdict will not be set aside.</p> <p>2. It is proper for the jury in fixing the amount of compensation to be allowed the land owner in condemnation proceedings, to estimate not only the value of the land actually taken for right-of-way, but also the damage done to the remaining poi\\ tion of the tract resulting from the construction of the road.</p> <p>3. The inquiry before the Circuit Court on a protest against the report of a jury in condemnation proceedings is not in the nature of an original proceeding to fix the amount of compensation to be allowed the land owner, but is an investigation into the validity and regularity of the proceedings by the jury in fixing the compensation to be awarded ; and upon such a hearing the party objecting to the report has the right to produce evidence tending to show good grounds for setting aside the report, and if the court should deny this right it would be error.</p> <p>4. Should the trial court improperly exclude a question propounded to a witness, and it appears that subsequently during the same examination the witness answers the question excluded, and • he is examined