United States v. Eden Memorial Park Association, and Cross-Appellant

This is a suit in condemnation wherein the United States seeks to condemn 11.14 acres in fee and a .60 acre slope easement from the Appellee and Cross-Appellant, Eden Memorial Park Association, for use in the construction of the San Diego Freeway, a part of the Federal Interstate Highway System.

At the time of the taking, Eden owned 60.51 acres, 53.96 acres of which were zoned for cemetery purposes, and 6.5 acres were not so zoned. Of the 11.74 acres taken, approximately 5.2 acres were zoned for cemetery purposes and 6.5 acres were not so zoned.

In seeking to establish the value of the land taken, Eden relied upon evidence of the capitalization of projected income, or as it is sometimes referred to “the income approach”. The Government assigns the introduction of this evidence as error. The Government also contends that the trial court erred in rejecting or limiting some of the evidence offered by the Government to establish value by “comparable” sales, and a prior sale of the instant property.

At the time of the acquisition of the instant property by Eden in 1953, the California State Highway Department had already planned a highway to traverse a portion of the Eden property.…