State ex rel. Department of Transportation v. Dupree

The state appeals from a judgment on a jury verdict that awarded defendant $94,215 as compensation for property that the state took to widen a highway.1 The state argues that the trial court erred when it denied, in part, the state’s motion for a peremptory instruction on the award of compensation to defendant for a change in her access to the highway and when it instructed the jury that it could consider the change in access in determining the compensation due defendant.2 We reverse.

The following facts are undisputed. Defendant owns property abutting Highway 30 in St. Helens. Defendant had…