Tanczos

Oswald and Laura Tanczos appeal from a condemnation judgment awarding them $320,000 for property taken by the State of California Department of Transportation (State). They maintain the award would have been significantly greater but for the court's exclusion of their construction plans, offered as evidence of one of the feasible uses of the property.

In the 1950's, the Tanczoses built a residence on an oversized lot in Tustin. Eventually they obtained a city building department's approval of construction plans for two or three rental units on the rear of the property. In 1989, before construction commenced, the State initiated a condemnation action relating to freeway expansion.

Unable to agree on the property's fair market value, the parties proceeded to trial. The State made an in limine motion to prohibit the Tanczoses from introducing the approved construction plans. It argued the jury might assume the rental units would be built and impermissibly increase the value of the land on that basis. The Tanczoses maintained the plans were necessary to prove the feasibility of the project. Without this evidence, the Tanczoses said, the State would argue…