A major case decision has been reached…
The Arkansas Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a $3 million jury verdict against the Arkansas State Highway Commission. The money goes to the Lewis family trust, whose land near I-40 in Conway was taken for a road project. They tried to take a family’s land!
Huge Verdict by Jury In Arkansas Land Case
In August 2015, the commission condemned 1.62 acres of the trust’s property to widen Dave Ward Drive and add roundabouts. The taking cut off the land’s direct access to Dave Ward Drive, a busy commercial road.
The commission put $417,825 into the court registry as its estimate of what it owed the family. The Lewises argued their loss was much larger.
The family said the City of Conway later required them to build a relocated Amity Road and a connector road before they could develop the land commercially. They testified those roads cost roughly $4 million to $4.5 million and used up seven acres of their remaining land.
The case did not reach trial until June 2024, nearly nine years after the taking. The Lewises’ appraiser put the family’s loss at about $3.89 million, while the commission’s appraiser stuck with $417,825.
The Faulkner County jury awarded $3 million. Circuit Judge Susan K. Weaver added 8 percent interest, compounded annually from the 2015 taking date, plus about $123,000 in attorney’s fees and costs.
On appeal, the commission argued the road-building costs should never have been shown to the jury. It said the family would have had to build those roads to develop the land anyway.
Writing for the majority, Judge Mike Murphy said Arkansas courts have long allowed evidence of what it costs to fix the damage from a taking. He noted the jury was told those costs could help it judge the land’s loss in value but were not the damages themselves.
The court also found the evidence supported the verdict, which fell between the two appraisers’ figures. It rejected the commission’s challenges to the timing of the fee request and to the 8 percent interest rate.
Chief Judge Klappenbach and Judges Abramson, Virden and Hixson joined the opinion. Judge Brandon J. Harrison was the only dissent.
Harrison wrote that the land was “still a big dirt lot” on the day it was taken. He called the road network a possible windfall for the family, paid for by taxpayers.
By Harrison’s estimate, the state’s total bill comes to about $3.5 million once interest since 2015 is added.
The case is Arkansas State Highway Commission v. Lewis, 2026 Ark. App. 517.
Disclaimer: The following information comes from court records. All known information is presented responsibly.
Leave a Reply