DeLucia v. Burns

This is an appeal from the granting of the defendant’s motion for summary judgment in a condemnation action. The dispositive issue is whether, after a landowner has breached a voluntary agreement to convey land to the highway commissioner for a highway project, the commissioner, in a subsequent condemnation action to acquire the land, may limit the damages to the amount agreed to by the parties in the sales contract. We find that, under these circumstances, the landowner is entitled to receive as just compensation for the taking no more than he originally agreed to in the sales contract.…