RULES OF DISCOVERY AND DISCLOSURE IN HIGHWAY CONDEMNATION PROCEEDINGS

The Federal and State cases on this subject are discussed in this paper as well as the statutes and rules adopted in various jurisdictions to resolve the uncertainties attending the discovery of expert opinion. Federal cases prior to July 1, 1970 are discussed, and Federal law since adoption of the 1970 amendments of the discovery rules is reviewed. Court decisions in California and New York are cited and analyzed. These states have the greatest exposure to eminent domain discovery and have adopted statutes regulating such discovery. State appellate decisions relating to the subject of pretrial discovery of appraisal information in other states are also discussed. The cases show that the resolution of the problems of pretrial discovery in eminent domain has been in favor of requiring greater disclosure of appraisal information, either through judicial opinions giving broad import to the regular civil discovery rules, or where the discovery rules are too restrictive in language or interpretation, by the adoption of statute or court rule requiring such increased disclosure. The opinion is also expressed that the trial of a condemnation case benefits greatly from the effective cross-examination which results from advance knowledge of the methods, theories, and opinions of the appraisal and engineering expert witness called by the opposing party, whether he be the condemnor or the condemnee. An appendix presents further information relating to statutes and court rules relating to eminent domain discovery.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • A supplement to this paper by L.W. Thomas was published in Addendum 3, December 1982, pp 468-S1 through 468-S11.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Long, J M
  • Watts, C E
• Publication Date: 1976

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; References;
• Pagination: p. 401-468
• Serial:
  • Selected Studies in Highway Law
  • Volume: 1
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Appraisals; Case studies; Courts; Eminent domain; Highways; Land values; Laws; Property condemnation; Witnesses
• Old TRIS Terms: Condemnation
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Law;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00148911
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 28 1998 12:00AM