Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. Ramsey (542 S.W.2d 466, 1976)

MOORE, Justice.

This is an eminent domain proceeding. Appellant, Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, condemned an easement lying on the East side of appellee’s 154-acre tract of land for the purpose of laying an underground communication cable. The tract condemned was 10 feet in width and 3,515 feet in length and covered an area of 35,-152.92 square feet or .807 of an acre. The easement extends along the west side and is contiguous to State Highway 34 connecting the City of Terrell, Texas, with Interstate Highway 20 and lies within the city limits of the City of Terrell. Appellee, Robert K. Ramsey, stipulated that the telephone company had a right to condemn the easement, and that all jurisdictional requirements had been met and that the only matter in controversy was the issue of damages. Prior to trial appellee filed a Motion in Limine judicially admitting that he owned not only the 154 acres adjacent to the easement but owned a total of 320 acres adjacent and contiguous to the ten foot easement and that the land was used as a unit for grazing purposes. Appellee further stipulated that he waived damages to the remainder of the 320 acres except for a strip of land 240 feet wide abutting and adjoining the easement running along the entire length of the easement and containing 843,669 square feet or 19.36 acres. Appellee also alleged in his Motion in Limine that the market value of the 240' strip adjacent to the easement and being near Highway 34 was much higher than the over all per acre value of the remaining land on which he waived severance damages and prayed for an order prohibiting the telephone company from showing that he owned other land other than the 240' strip adjacent to the easement. The trial court granted the Motion in Limine and the cause was tried and submitted to the jury as if the entire remainder of appel-lee’s property, after the taking of the 10-foot easement, consisted of only the 240' strip containing 843,669 square feet or 19.36 acres. In response to the special issues, the jury found (1) that the market value of the 35,152.92 square feet of land taken for the easement immediately before the taking was 6