Lynch v. Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner

In this landowner’s appeal from a judgment in a highway condemnation case, we decide whether the trial court erred in excluding certain exhibits and testimony that, according to the landowner, would have demonstrated the highest and best use of his property for purposes of proving the value of the land taken and damages to the residue.

The Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner (the Commissioner) made a bona fide, but ineffectual, effort to purchase a 9.358-acre tract of land from Edwin W. Lynch, Jr. The tract, which will be used for highway construction, is located in the Lorton area of…