The Georgia Department of Transportation DOT condemned a portion of a tract of land owned by Herman Morris for a road right-of-way pursuant to OCGA § 32-3-1 et seq., and a jury awarded Morris $32,000 as just and adequate compensation. The DOT appeals claiming the trial court erred by denying its motion for a directed verdict on the issue of consequential damages and gave erroneous instructions to the jury. For the following reasons, we find the trial court should have granted the DOT’s motion and that the failure to do so resulted in a compensation award in excess of any amount supported by the evidence. Accordingly, we reverse. 1. The land at issue was a 2.5 acre tract owned by Morris which fronted on a highway. Morris’s residence and other improvements were located on the property along with a brick fence around the property located a short distance from the perimeter of the property. The fence ran parallel to the highway, then at a right angle away from the highway along the side of the property parallel to a road which bordered the property and intersected with the highway. To widen the highway, the DOT condemned a strip of Morris’s land located between the fence and the highway. To provide an adequate line of sight for motorists at the new intersection of the widened highway and the road, the DOT also condemned a triangular area at the corner of Morris’s property at the intersection and removed lengths of the brick fence in this area along the highway and the road.
Concluding that the highest and best use of the property was for residential purposes, the DOT’s expert appraiser testified that the fair market value of the whole 2.5 acre property prior to the taking the land, residence and other improvements was $177,801; that the value of the property taken from the whole the land and destroyed improvements thereon including the destroyed portion of the fence was $3,561, and that therefore the fair market value of the remaining property prior to the taking was $174,240. According to the DOT’s appraiser, the fair market value of the remaining property after the taking was constant at $174,240 so that there were no consequential damages to the remaining property as a result of the taking. It follows that the DOT’s evidence showed that just and adequate compensation for the taking of the residential property was the $3,561 value of the land taken and the improvements located thereon.
