Florida Department of Transportation v. Armadillo Partners, Inc.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Florida reviewed an eminent-domain case involving severance damages after the Department of Transportation partially took property from a shopping center. The court held that cost-to-cure evidence may be considered insofar as it bears on the fair market value of the remaining property, and that alleged deficiencies in an appraiser’s valuation generally affect the weight rather than admissibility of the testimony. The court quashed the Fourth District’s decision and disapproved conflicting First District precedent to the extent inconsistent with its opinion.

Holdings

1. Cost-to-cure evidence is admissible as a factor in determining the fair market value of the remaining property, but it is not a separate measure of damages and must be tied to the cure's effect on the remainder's market value.
2. The Department's proposed cure was admissible because a cure is an alternative proposal that the property owner may or may not implement, and the Department supplied binding testimony that it would permit the proposed driveway configuration if the owner implemented the cure.
3. An appraiser's failure to account for one of the many factors affecting value ordinarily goes to the weight and credibility of the testimony, not its admissibility, so long as the testimony is otherwise competent, relevant, and material.

Questions Presented

1. Whether an eminent-domain appraiser's opinion concerning severance damages was admissible when the appraiser addressed the effect of a proposed cure and the loss of an arbor area through the property's post-taking rental value rather than as a separately stated item of compensation.
2. Whether evidence of the Department's proposed cure was admissible even though the proposed driveway configuration was not included in the Department's existing construction plans.
3. Whether deficiencies in an appraiser's valuation method ordinarily affect the weight rather than the admissibility of the expert's testimony.

Disposition

quashed