Commonwealth, Department of Highways v. Caudill

PALMORE, Judge.

This is a condemnation case in which the highway department has acquired 5.76 acres of a 70-acre tract of land at the southwest edge of West Liberty, county seat of Morgan County, incident to widening, straightening and re-grading U. S. 460 as it leads from the city up and over Index Hill toward Frenchburg. The highway bisects the property, as it did before the improvement project, and the taking embraced an area bordering each side of the road along a distance of some 1400 or 1500 feet. Also included within the taking were a tenant house and ramshackle coal shed. In a trial…