PEOPLE, DEPT. PUB. WKS. v. Southern Pac. Trans. Co.

Plaintiff (condemner) appeals from a judgment in an eminent domain proceeding awarding respondent (condemnee) the sum of $52,750 as compensation for a strip of real property 40 feet wide by 1,350 feet long at one time used by condemnee for a railroad right-of-way. Condemner concedes the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment but contends: (1) the trial court prejudicially erred in ruling that the condemned property should be valued disregarding existing zoning restrictions upon it; and (2) the trial court prejudicially erred in receiving in evidence an offer to purchase the property made by the condemner. We reverse the judgment.

The property which is the subject of the case at bench is located in the San Fernando Valley in the City of Los Angeles. It was acquired by condemnee's predecessor in interest in 1912 and beginning in that year it was used as a railroad right-of-way. The general area through which the right-of-way ran was agricultural in character. A street subsequently to become the southbound lane of Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley was constructed on the west side of the right-of-way sometime prior to 1935. The…