Aug. 15, 2018 – In a flurry of legislation in April 2018, the Wisconsin Legislature enacted the “Development Property Modernization Act,” or 2017 Wis. Act 243, at the end of the Legislature’s regular 2017-18 session.
Learn just what has changed in the area of eminent domain with Condemnation Law and Practice in Wisconsin from State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE®, newly revised and in its second edition.
Condemnation Law and Practice in Wisconsin covers new legal developments since the 2015 supplement and builds on the practice tips of the book’s original authors by incorporating the perspectives of two additional co-authors with extensive combined knowledge of condemnation law.
New Legislation has Changed How Property is Valued
The “Development Property Modernization Act,” 2017 Wis. Act 243 was signed into law in April 2018.
Amendments relating to local regulation of property development included a number of significant changes to Wisconsin’s condemnation statutes.
For example, to determine value in a condemnation case, the condemnation commission or court
“shall consider, if provided by the condemnor or condemnee, an appraisal based on the income approach and an appraisal based on the cost approach.”1
Traditionally, appraisals based on an income approach were inadmissible in compensation trials except in very limited circumstances.2
Essential: Understanding the Rules for Admissibility of Expert Testimony
Dozens of individuals, governmental officials, and business representatives appeared in early 2018 at a legislative hearing on the bill that became Act 243.
Addressing the bill’s condemnation provisions, a representative for the city of Madison remarked that “[c]ourts have long limited the use of the income approach because of the fluid nature of net income evidence; it is dependent upon numerous variables such as the motivation of the owner/operator, the economy and economic trends, and even the weather.”3
Although the considerations for determining value may have changed with Act 243, the need for expert assessments continues. To assist with that need, revisions in the 2018 edition of Condemnation Law and Practice include a new, detailed section on the impact of Wisconsin’s adoption of the Daubert reliability standard4 on the admissibility of expert testimony.
The authors advise that “[m]otions in limine can address any improper, unreliable, or speculative evidence relied on by an appraiser,”5 and they illustrate circumstances that might provide good grounds for pretrial motions for rulings on the inadmissibility of proposed expert evidence.
Further, the authors offer tips for counsel to evaluate their own experts’ testimony before moving to exclude an opponent’s proposed expert witnesses.6
New Perspectives
As condemnation law and practice has expanded since the original authors – Richard Donner and John Van Lieshout of the Milwaukee office of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c. – penned the first edition, so has the list of contributors to this valuable treatise.
Additional new co-authors include, from the Madison office of Axley Brynelson, LLP, Sara Beachy, with experience in the public and private sectors in condemnation law, and Micheal Hahn, with a background in transportation and construction.
How to Order
Condemnation Law and Practice in Wisconsin, revised in a second edition in 2018, is available both in print for $149 for members and $189 for nonmembers, and online via Books UnBound®, the State Bar’s interactive online library.
Subscribers to the State Bar’s automatic supplementation service will receive future updates at a discount off the regular price.
For more information or to place an order, visit the WisBar Marketplace or call the State Bar at (800) 728-7788 or (608) 257-3838.
Endnotes
1 Wis. Stat. § 32.09(1m)(b), as created by 2017 Wis. Act 243, § 2.
2 Sara K. Beachy et al., Condemnation Law and Practice in Wisconsin § 8.10 (2d ed. 2018). “The new provision first applies to actions in which the condemnor’s title over the property vested after April 5, 2018.” Id. (citing 2017 Wis. Act 243, § 63(3)).
3 Hearing on Assembly Bill 770 Before the Assemb. Comm. on Housing & Real Estate (Jan. 3, 2018) (statement of Nick Zavos, Gov’t Relations Dir.).
4 Wis. Stat. § 907.02 (modeled after Fed. R. Evid. 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993)).
5 Beachy et al., supra note 2, § 8.10.
6 Id.