Arkansas State Highway Comm'n v. Carruthers

George Rose Smith, Justice.

This is the second appeal in a condemnation case in which the highway department is taking, as a right of way for interstate 40, a 29.27-acre strip (plus a construction easement) across the appellees’ lands, which total 740 acres. The first judgment was reversed because of an error by which hearsay testimony about the cost of a bridge was admitted in evidence. Ark. State Highway Commn. v. Carruthers, decided April 7, 1969, 439 S. W. 2d 40. At the second trial the verdict was for $50,000. The department relies upon two points for reversal.

First, it is argued that the…