Landowner awarded $5M in eminent domain case
A Superior Court jury has awarded a landowner more than $5 million for land the state took via eminent domain at the intersection of Route 1 and Route 16.
The Delaware Department of Transportation sought to acquire a 4.2-acre triangular piece of land at the southeastern corner of the intersection adjacent to The Rookery golf course. The vacant parcel, owned by PITB LLC, contained a northbound country road along the border with The Rookery to Route 16. It also contained a 0.2525-acre easement owned by Stafford Street Capital LLC. DelDOT took possession of the property in 2021 and has used the land as part of its project to build a grade-separated intersection in the area.
The eminent domain process requires a formal condemnation proceeding because the landowner did not accept DelDOT’s offer of $1.48 million to purchase the property, which the agency claims in the lawsuit filed in 2021 to be the highest fair market value appraisal it received. It offered $144,700 for the easement.
Attorneys from Brockstedt Mandalas Federico worked with land-appraisal experts to explore the value of the property, which it determined was $5.25 million, and the attorneys were able to convince a jury their appraisal was more appropriate, as the jury awarded the landowners $5.015 million.
According to the law firm, it is unusual for eminent domain requests to go to a jury. Condemnation cases are most often resolved via negotiation or mediation. This case was just the second time in recent memory that a condemnation case was decided by a jury.
Prior to construction of the first of two bridges over Route 16, DelDOT constructed new northbound Route 1 roads through the triangular property. Work on the southbound bridge finished this spring, with work now beginning on the northbound bridge.
