We learn from a federal appellate court opinion (in which the property owners unsuccessfully sought to recover damages for the city’s bad faith in pursuing an eminent domain action against them) that in the underlying state court condemnation action, the town offered $15,250, contending that the owners’ lot was unbuildable. But at trial the appraiser was born again and testified that the lot was buildable and it was worth $140,000. The award was $184,000. By our calculator, that’s 12 times the original offer.
You can find this information in Palermo v. Town of Reading, (1st Cir. 2010) Case No. 09-1049 (unpublished opinion) . Our thanks for that one to Robert Thomas, at www.inversecondemnation.com . To find the entire federal court opinion that reports this controversy in detail, go to http://www.inversecondemnation.com/files/09-1049u-01a.pdf