Post by gatormom on Aug 18, 2007 6:03:21 GMT -6
One parcel, two trials?
District 204 might have to argue case for Metea land twice
By Melissa Jenco
mjenco@dailyherald.com
Posted Saturday, August 18, 2007
Indian Prairie Unit District 204 could face two separate trials to set a price for the land where it wants to build Metea Valley High School.
If one of the landowners has its way, at least one of those trials would take place outside of DuPage County.
Pretrial motions were due Thursday in the condemnation lawsuit between the district and the Brach-Brodie trust, which owns the land off Route 59 near 75th Street and Commons Drive in Aurora where the district plans to construct Metea.
The land would be combined with 25 acres the district already owns at the site to create an 80-acre campus, but the sides have been unable to reach an agreement on the value of the property.
The school district, which includes portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield, filed 11 motions this week.
The Brodie trust filed 20 of its own, including one asking that the Brachs and Brodies each have their own separate trials against the district.
Steve Helm, attorney for the Brodie trust, said the Brachs and Brodies have their own attorneys, expert witnesses and approaches. To combine them in one trial would only confuse the jury, he said.
He said the Brodie side focused on hiring local experts who traditionally testify on the side of government bodies.
In addition, experts for the two owners have come up with differing values for the property, though both are above the $250,000 the district experts say it’s worth.
The Brodie trust is estimating the land is worth $550,000 to $600,000 an acre, while the Brach trust’s experts estimate it at $650,000, according to Helm.
“From my perspective, I would rather have a lower number that is based on what people have come up with that have been around this area and testified for a lot of cases for the government in the past,” Helm said.
In the event of two trials, Helm said the district would pay half of each verdict. The two trusts share the site equally.
The Brodie trust also is asking that the trial be moved to Cook County because of the extent of news coverage it has received in addition to information the school district shares with residents on its Web site.
“There’s just so many different people who read that, and there have been so many different articles in the paper that keep going over the critical need for the school and the impact on the school district and the children and the tax bills and the residents … rather than the focus on here’s the property owner who has a constitutional right to be paid the full value of the property,” Helm said.
If the motion to move the trial out of Cook County fails, another has been filed to exclude District 204 residents from serving on the jury.
Rick Petesch, attorney for the school district, said he does not want to comment on the Brodie motions.
“I really don’t think we should be trying this case in the newspaper, and the reasons for that is that you don’t want the publicity to affect the jury pool,” he said. “So I really don’t want to comment on things I don’t want eventually to go to the jury for the same reason I don’t want it in the newspaper because I don’t want potential jurors to read it there either.”
An attorney for the Brach trust could not be reached for comment.
Among the other motions were requests by both the Brodies and the district that several of the opposing side’s witnesses be barred from testifying because of the way in which they went about appraising the land.
The district also asked that comparisons to several other properties be dismissed because they are too dissimilar to the land in question.
The motion on separate trials is due in court Aug. 27. The remaining motions are scheduled to be heard Sept. 6. On Sept. 17, the jury trial begins.
Construction on the 3,000-student facility was supposed to start this spring, and district officials say delays will drive up costs. The school is scheduled to open in fall 2009 to help ease crowding at the existing Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley high schools.
District 204 might have to argue case for Metea land twice
By Melissa Jenco
mjenco@dailyherald.com
Posted Saturday, August 18, 2007
Indian Prairie Unit District 204 could face two separate trials to set a price for the land where it wants to build Metea Valley High School.
If one of the landowners has its way, at least one of those trials would take place outside of DuPage County.
Pretrial motions were due Thursday in the condemnation lawsuit between the district and the Brach-Brodie trust, which owns the land off Route 59 near 75th Street and Commons Drive in Aurora where the district plans to construct Metea.
The land would be combined with 25 acres the district already owns at the site to create an 80-acre campus, but the sides have been unable to reach an agreement on the value of the property.
The school district, which includes portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield, filed 11 motions this week.
The Brodie trust filed 20 of its own, including one asking that the Brachs and Brodies each have their own separate trials against the district.
Steve Helm, attorney for the Brodie trust, said the Brachs and Brodies have their own attorneys, expert witnesses and approaches. To combine them in one trial would only confuse the jury, he said.
He said the Brodie side focused on hiring local experts who traditionally testify on the side of government bodies.
In addition, experts for the two owners have come up with differing values for the property, though both are above the $250,000 the district experts say it’s worth.
The Brodie trust is estimating the land is worth $550,000 to $600,000 an acre, while the Brach trust’s experts estimate it at $650,000, according to Helm.
“From my perspective, I would rather have a lower number that is based on what people have come up with that have been around this area and testified for a lot of cases for the government in the past,” Helm said.
In the event of two trials, Helm said the district would pay half of each verdict. The two trusts share the site equally.
The Brodie trust also is asking that the trial be moved to Cook County because of the extent of news coverage it has received in addition to information the school district shares with residents on its Web site.
“There’s just so many different people who read that, and there have been so many different articles in the paper that keep going over the critical need for the school and the impact on the school district and the children and the tax bills and the residents … rather than the focus on here’s the property owner who has a constitutional right to be paid the full value of the property,” Helm said.
If the motion to move the trial out of Cook County fails, another has been filed to exclude District 204 residents from serving on the jury.
Rick Petesch, attorney for the school district, said he does not want to comment on the Brodie motions.
“I really don’t think we should be trying this case in the newspaper, and the reasons for that is that you don’t want the publicity to affect the jury pool,” he said. “So I really don’t want to comment on things I don’t want eventually to go to the jury for the same reason I don’t want it in the newspaper because I don’t want potential jurors to read it there either.”
An attorney for the Brach trust could not be reached for comment.
Among the other motions were requests by both the Brodies and the district that several of the opposing side’s witnesses be barred from testifying because of the way in which they went about appraising the land.
The district also asked that comparisons to several other properties be dismissed because they are too dissimilar to the land in question.
The motion on separate trials is due in court Aug. 27. The remaining motions are scheduled to be heard Sept. 6. On Sept. 17, the jury trial begins.
Construction on the 3,000-student facility was supposed to start this spring, and district officials say delays will drive up costs. The school is scheduled to open in fall 2009 to help ease crowding at the existing Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley high schools.
