- 5 -
final award, if the final award was less than the amount
withdrawn.
Negotiations to obtain legal title to the property without a
trial were unsuccessful, and, on May 20, 1981, the State adopted
a resolution to institute formal condemnation proceedings against
petitioner and to prosecute such proceedings to a conclusion.
The condemnation trial was set for March 31, 1987.4
However, sometime prior to the trial, petitioner advised the
State that the condemnation petition did not correctly identify
the total area to be acquired in that it omitted 642 square feet
of land. More specifically, the State had omitted from the
description contained in the condemnation petition a 4-foot wide
strip of land, approximately 160 feet long, extending along the
front of a portion of the DeSellum property between Route 355 and
the property described in the previously filed condemnation
petition. The State had actually taken possession of this
property on June 16, 1980.
Due to the discrepancies between the property actually
possessed by the State and the property described in the
condemnation petition, the trial was postponed. The circuit
4 Although the State utilized the "quick take" condemnation
procedure to acquire petitioners' property, the record
demonstrates that there was nothing quick about the condemnation.
Sometime between 1980, when the condemnation petition was filed,
and 1985, the parties agreed to place the condemnation case on a
"stet" docket until the construction plans for final phase of the
Route 355 project were completed. In 1985, the construction
plans for the final phase of the Route 355 project were
completed, and a motion was filed to take the case off the stet
docket. The case was then reset for trial in 1987.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011