United States of America, and v. 4,566.26 Acres of Land, More or Less, Situate in Maricopa County, State of Arizona, John W. Wesson, And

This appeal is from judgment awarding compensation for the taking of land by condemnation. The central point in issue is the manner in which the value of the land’s cotton allotment was determined.

Pursuant to Congressional action authorizing construction of the Painted Rock Dam and Reservoir, (See, Pub.L. 81-516, 64 Stat. 163), a flood control project in the Citrus Valley of the Gila River Basin in Maricopa County, Arizona, the United States, in 1959, brought a condemnation action to acquire the land of appellee Wesson. The said land contained 1285.20 acres, including 295.6 acres which had been allotted for growing cotton. The balance of the good farmland was used for growing grain and cover crops, e. g., barley, silage, Bermuda grass and Sudan grass, for the feeding of cattle. At the time of the condemnation suit there were 700 to 800 head of cattle on the property.

The formula used to calculate Wesson’s condemnation awarded was the one previously approved by this court in United States v. Citrus Valley Farms, Inc., 350 F.2d 683 (9th Cir. 1965); First, the land was valued with the cotton allotment included. From this was deducted the value, if any, of Wesson’s *276 right under…

(concurring) :

To me, the evidence about the cost and sale of Wesson’s new land was properly-excluded. There were too many factors in it other than the one element of the transferred cotton allotment to use its history as an indication of the value of the cotton allotment.

I have an abiding belief that the deduction of one dollar as the value of the cotton allotment is not enough. I wish the jury had taken off a few thousand dollars for it. But as I see it that question is not really before us.

So I concur.

450 F.2d 274 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. 4,566.26 ACRES OF LAND, MORE OR LESS, Situate IN MARICOPA COUNTY, STATE OF ARIZONA, John W. Wesson, et al., Defendants and Appellees. No. 25218. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Oct. 19, 1971. 1 Jacques B. Gelin, (argued), Harold S. Harrison, Edmund B. Clark, Dept. of Justice, Shiro Kashiwa, Asst. Atty. Gen., Lands & Natural Resources Div., Washington, D. C., Richard K. Burke, U. S. Atty., Richard S. Allemann, Asst. U. S. Atty., Phoenix, Ariz., for appellant. 2 J. Gordon Cook, (argued), of McKesson, Renaud, Cook, Miller & Cordova, Phoenix, Ariz., for appellee. 3 Before CHAMBERS and BARNES, Circuit Judges, and BYRNE, * District Judge. BYRNE, District Judge: 4 This appeal is from judgment awarding compensation for the taking of land by condemnation. The central point in issue is the manner in which the value of the land's cotton allotment was determined. 5 Pursuant to Congressional action authorizing construction of the Painted Rock Dam and Reservoir, (See, Pub.L. 81-516, 64 Stat. 163), a flood control project in the Citrus Valley of the Gila River Basin in Maricopa County, Arizona, the United…