CNL APF Partners LP v. DOT

The Georgia Department of Transportation DOT instituted proceedings to condemn real property on which a restaurant stood. The condemnation constituted a total taking of the property, and the condemnees sought a jury trial on their fair and adequate compensation for the taking.1 We granted this interlocutory review of the trial court’s rulings on several pre-trial motions. In Case No. A10A1812, condemnee CNL APF Partners, LP CNL appeals the trial court’s denial of its motion for partial summary judgment, its motion to strike the DOT’s brief in opposition to partial summary judgment, and its motion in limine to exclude evidence. For reasons that follow, we vacate the court’s ruling on the partial summary judgment motion and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith; we affirm the court’s ruling on the motion to strike; and we reverse the court’s ruling on the motion in limine.

In Case No. A10A1991, condemnees RCI Realty, LLC RCI and Restaurant Concepts II, LLC Restaurant Concepts appeal the court’s denial of their several motions in limine to exclude evidence. For reasons that follow, we affirm the denial of their motions to exclude evidence of certain of the condemnees’ prior knowledge of the potential condemnation, evidence of a 2003 letter from Restaurant Concepts’s counsel to an appraiser, and evidence of rent that RCI had charged Restaurant Concepts for use of the property. We reverse the denial of the motions to exclude evidence of funds that the DOT placed in the court registry when it petitioned for condemnation, and evidence of the cause of a fire that damaged the restaurant on the property prior to the condemnation.