Title Insurance & Guaranty Co. v. United States

•This is an appeal by the property owner from a judgment in a condemnation action. The appeal relates to the amount of the award, the sole specification being that the judgment entered by the court does not conform to the award made by the jury.

The petition to condemn was filed in July, 1942, and at that time the United States entered into possession of the four parcels of land involved. The case was tried some eight years later, namely, in December, 1950. The court in its instructions directed the jury to find separately the fair market value of each parcel and, also separately, the fair market value of the annual use of each parcel from the date of taking. The wording of the forms of verdict submitted in respect of the determination of the value of annual use was somewhat ambiguous, and appellants’ contention is that the amounts •entered by the jury should have been multiplied by the number of years since the date •of taking.

The contention is wholly without merit. The court, not once, but several times, meticulously instructed the jury to insert in the form the value of the use for the total period of time from the original taking to the time of trial, arriving at the total…