State v. Lewis

OPINION

BURKE, Justice.

This is an appeal from consolidated eminent domain and inverse condemnation cases. The question presented is whether the state is entitled to a new trial on the amount of just compensation required for the taking of an abutting landowner’s right of access to the Richardson Highway. We hold that the superior court abused its discretion in denying the state’s motion for a new trial, because the jury verdict is internally inconsistent.

I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

In 1969, the state condemned a strip of land bisecting an eighty-acre parcel owned by William and Geraldine Lewis in…