People Ex Rel. Department of Public Works v. Auburn Ski Club

In this condemnation proceeding respondents received a jury award of $201,050. After judgment entered and the trial court’s denial of a motion for a new trial the state appealed.

Its contentions will be captioned below and discussed after a general statement of the facts.

The land condemned was a “total take’’ of 65.8 acres of land located at Cisco Grove in Placer County. A comparatively small portion was needed for the construction of a section of the new freeway between Auburn and Donner Summit. (Interstate Highway 80.) The state, however, elected to take the entire parcel under Streets and Highways Code section 104.1, since the remainder would have been entirely landlocked. The parcel is mountainside property lying between the Yuba River which forms its north boundary and the Southern Pacific Company railroad right-of-way, its south boundary, which is several hundred feet in elevation above the stream. From the south boundary the property slopes downward at varying grades of steepness to a flatter area along the river. Old United States Highway 40, which ran generally along the north side of the river, is not immediately adjacent thereto but the property had access to the…