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title immediately. The condemnation award is thereafter
determined. Held and Dudley employed Henry V. Graham (Graham) to
determine the value of this taking by the State of Alabama.
Graham determined that the land subject to the taking was
suitable for both residential and commercial development, and the
value of the taking was $536,110. Held and Dudley also retained
Sidney W. Smyer, Jr. (Smyer), and Joe Scotch, Jr. (Scotch), to
assess the value of the taking. In his appraisal report, Smyer
concluded that the highest and best use of the property subject
to the taking was commercial in nature. Scotch, though not
expressly determining the highest and best use of the property
subject to the taking, based his report on an analysis of
comparable sales involving only commercial properties. Scotch's
conclusions paralleled Smyer's conclusions, and both determined
that the value of the taking exceeded $2 million. Upon its
completion, I-459 bisected the trust property and intersected
Highway 280, forming an angle of approximately 90 degrees.
Throughout the course of the 7-year period ending in 1980,
the trust was involved in the sale of between 7 and 10 acres of
trust property to Cahaba Mall, Inc., a company owned by James
Grimmer (Grimmer). This property is located west of Highway 280
and south of I-459. Grimmer paid $15,000 per acre in partial
consideration for the property.
In March 1977, the trust and South Central Bell Telephone
Co. (Bell) initiated arrangements for the purchase of some of the
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