Shepherd Interiors appeals from the judgment entered on a jury verdict in a condemnation case, asserting as error a number of evidentiary rulings by the trial court. Because we find the trial court erred both in refusing Shepherd the opportunity to interview the City of Atlanta’s undisclosed witness and in refusing to admit evidence to impeach that witness, we reverse. Shepherd owned a parcel of property on Roswell Road adjoining Nancy Creek. The City of Atlanta condemned Shepherd’s property as part of the Nancy Creek Tunnel Project. The parties disagreed on the value of the property, and a determination of its value hinged on whether the property could be used or improved. The city contended the property was worth only $80,400 because it lay within a flood plain and therefore could not be used or developed. Shepherd contended, however, that the property could be taken out of the flood plain and developed, and thus was worth $725,000. The jury returned a verdict for $84,420 as the value of the property.
1. During the trial, the city questioned a real estate appraiser with regard to whether the property could be graded or improved. The witness testified that it could not, basing his conclusion upon his conversations with Westerfield, a city employee. The city then called as a witness Westerfield, who had never been identified as a witness in response to discovery; while his name ostensibly appeared in the city’s portion of the pretrial order as a “may call” witness, that document does not appear in the record and apparently was not served on Shepherd until the case was actually called for trial. After Westerfield was called to the stand, Shepherd requested that it be given “just a few minutes” to interview Westerfield to determine what his testimony would be. The trial court simply responded, “No, sir.”
