Judge to decide value of property owned by family

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

A family that had its property taken away by Las Vegas 11 years ago will find out on Friday whether it will be allowed to use testimony from multiple appraisers -- a ruling that could mean a difference of millions of dollars.

District Judge Mark Denton will decide at the end of the week whether or not to allow the Pappas family and the Las Vegas Downtown Redevelopment Agency to enter more evidence and testimony in the case that will ultimately determine the value of 7,000 square feet of property once owned by the Pappas family.

If Denton rules more evidence can be admitted, the Pappases would benefit by having as many as 22 witnesses deposed and testifying at trial.

The Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency's attorney, Dan Polsenberg, said the Pappas family already had a chance to depose the 22 witnesses when his offices scheduled a day to do so prior to the discovery deadline. Polsenberg said although the witnesses were notified in accordance with Nevada law, none of them and no attorney for the Pappases showed up for the depositions.

Polsenberg said he would seek sanctions and request attorney fees be paid for the time his offices spent on preparing for the depositions that never occurred.

If Denton rules in the city's favor, the Pappas family would be forced to rely only on the testimony of one appraiser from 10 years ago who said the land was worth $1.4 million, according to Polsenberg.

Polsenberg said the land is worth between $400,000 and $1.4 million.

The Pappas family's attorney, James Leavitt, said he notified Polsenberg's office four days before the 22 depositions were scheduled to happen that he needed to have them rescheduled, which he said "is a common courtesy" in the legal world.

"Never once in my entire career have I told a county, city or state attorney they couldn't have depositions rescheduled and all I do is practice eminent domain cases," Leavitt said.

Additionally Leavitt said state law requires individuals be contacted with at least 15-days notice, but more importantly it requires "reasonable" notice be given. Leavitt said setting up the depositions for 22 individuals all on one day failed to meet the burden of being reasonable.

"They (the Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency) don't want the Pappas family to prove their case and are trying to use technicalities and procedural rules to prevent them from doing so," Leavitt said. "Now the government is trying to limit testimony to one appraiser from 10 years ago, all of the landowner's witnesses should be heard from."

The question of the property value of the land on the northwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Carson Avenue, land formerly owned by the Pappases, is the only issue left in the 11-year-old legal battle after it was determined the city acted within its rights when it took the property by eminent domain.

Eminent domain is the power the government has to force landowners to sell property for public use.

The Pappas family's land was leveled and became part of the five-story parking garage that now extends to Fremont Street and belongs to the operators of the Fremont Street Experience mall.

The Pappases argued the agency violated the family's property rights when it took the land and sought a ruling that would have given them control of part of the $23 million parking garage on the corner of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard.

The family won at the lower court level, getting a Clark County District Court ruling that said the city broke several state and federal redevelopment statutes, took the property without just cause and then handed it over to casinos.

However, the Nevada Supreme Court said in a 5-2 ruling that as long as any individual redevelopment project bears a "rational relationship" to the eradication of physical, social or economic blight, it serves a public purpose within the power of eminent domain.

The Pappas family's final hope on that aspect of the case was the U.S. Supreme Court, which in March declined without comment to hear the case.