The New York Supreme Court for Rockland County handed down a decision in AAA Electricians, Inc. v. Village of Haverstraw, Index No. 6169/03, December 9, 2011, involving the taking of an 18.9-acre riverfront parcel (0.5 0f an acre underwater), with the figures as follows:
Prelitigation offer – $2,596,150
Deposit – $2,596,150 (plus interest at 6%, for a total of $2,631,429.19)
Condemnor’s trial testimony – $1,000,000
Court award – $6,500,000, plus interest
That comes to 6.5 times the condemnor’s testimony, and 2.5 times the pretrial offer.
In an interesting side isse, the court granted the owners’ motion for sanctions because the condemnor’s appraiser did not retain copies of his draft appraisal reports as required by USPAP rules. The sanction: “the Court elects to accord an adverse inference with regard to the destruction of prior draft appraisals. . .”
Note that in New York, as viewers of “Law and Order” know, the Supreme Court is a trial court; the lowest court of general jurisdiction. What the rest of the country (save Maryland) calls the Supreme Court, New Yorkers call the Court of Appeals. And what everybody else calls the Court of Appeals, they call the Appellate Division. Go figure.