Navy asks jury verdict be thrown out in Dixie Valley land case

Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1998 | 11:47 a.m.

Jurors agreed with Edward and Alice Slawinski that the Navy should pay more than the $40,000 offered for their 590 acre ranch. The Slawinskis had fought the Navy for a decade saying they didn't want to sell the property.

They pointed to a steadily decreasing series of offers by the Navy over the years beginning at $189,000. Finally, after a condemnation suit in 1995, the Navy had a new appraisal done and offered just $40,000.

The Slawinskis filed suit arguing that if the land was worth less, it was because of the Navy's actions and use of the area as a supersonic training range.

The jury agreed and valued the land at $800 an acre. That comes to a total of $471,000.

Lawyers for the Navy filed a motion asking Hagen to overturn that jury verdict on grounds that there isn't any evidence to support it.

"The jury's verdict was the result of passion and prejudice, both against the Navy and for the defendant," the motion says. "The result should shock the conscience of the court."

But Slawinski's attorney, Dan Walsh, argued in his response that the motion ignores the facts and the law, "and continues to insist that the government can destroy the value of a citizen's property and then acquire it through condemnation at little or no value."

Walsh argues the government made its appraisal based on comparisons with properties that weren't comparable. He said two were landlocked with no access and one was a pile of rocks in a canyon that couldn't even be reached with a 4-wheel-drive vehicle. Other parcels had no water rights.