Cal—Bay Corp. v. United States

Appellants appeal from a decree in a condemnation proceeding awarding to each damages for the taking of the lessors’ and lessees’ mineral rights in land under leases for oil and gas development, upon which it is claimed there had been a discovery of petroleum gas of commercial quantities. They claim, inter alia, that by the refusal of a proper instruction on the valuation of the oil and ga's leases, the amount of damage awarded by the jury is grossly inadequate.

The maps in evidence, referred to in appellants’ briefs, show these oil and gas leases are of land in northern Contra Costa County about 25 miles northeast of the city of Oakland and about 32 miles from the city of San Francisco. Locally, they are situated about 2miles southeast of Port Chicago, on Suisun Bay, a branch of the Bay of San Francisco, 5 miles southwest of the city of Pittsburg, and 3 miles northeast of the town of Concord.

The claimed discovery of natural gas in commercial quantities is thus seen to be in the second largest metropolitan area in California having a population in 1940 of 1,500,000 people — increased by at least 25% since that time. If, as appellants’ testimony is, there is the likelihood that…

(dissenting),

The majority’s reversal of the judgment appears to be built around an instruction given by the court and the refusal to give appellants’ requested instruction No. 40. As I read the opinion other matters are brought in as intensifying the assumed prejudicial effect of the errors first mentioned.

The instruction held to be erroneous doe's not, as seems to be thought, advise the jury to disregard speculative values or speculative considerations which influence market value. This particular portion of the charge is devoted to conditions or considerations peculiar to the immediate parties as distinguished from the ordinary conditions in light of which fair market value is to be determined. I quote the entire passage.

“You are not to consider what the property or interest taken was worth to the defendants or any of them or to the owners of the leasehold or to the owners of the royalty interest for speculation or merely for possible usage, or what the defendants claim the property or leasehold interest or *25 royalty interest was worth for such purpose, nor what it would be worth to the Government for military purposes or for other purposes. You are not to consider the…