State Ex Rel. State Public Works Board v. Whitlow

Included in 82 and a fraction acres of defendants’ (Whitlows’) lands condemned by the state were 37.55 acres already under lease to the state. The jury found the fair market value of all land taken to be $67,110 with no severance damages to adjoining land not taken; it also found $12,034 as the value of the leasehold interests already owned by the state, leaving a net recoverable sum of $55,076. The Whitlows’ appeal raises this contention: Nothing should have been deducted from the state’s leasehold interests which (appellants urge) became “merged with the fee” at the time of the filing of…