People ex rel. Department of Transportation v. Dry Canyon Enterprises, LLC

*489 Opinion

When the state exercises its power of eminent domain over a parcel of land occupied by a business, the business owner has a right to have a jury determine the amount of “business goodwill” lost due to the taking. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1263.510.) 1 Here we decide whether the owner is entitled to a jury determination when the judge has determined, as a matter of law, that the business had no goodwill to lose in the first place. We are surprised to learn that no court has squarely decided this question. We are not surprised by the answer: Any determination on the loss of goodwill is not required when there was no goodwill to lose.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Dry Canyon Enterprises, LLC (Dry Canyon), makes wine. Dry Canyon blends its wines mostly from grapes purchased from other vineyards and, to a lesser extent, from grapes grown on land it owns in Madera and Paso Robles, California. In its business plan, Dry Canyon planned to develop a flagship wine—an estate cabernet to be made from grapes grown on the Paso Robles land and to be marketed under the label “Chumeia.” By 2009, Dry Canyon had blended and sold a few vintages of its Chumeia label wine, but had encountered…