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Correction: A family that won a $5.5 million jury verdict against the Utah Department of Transportation was the defendant in the case. A headline Friday indicated otherwise and the story listed the wrong district.
A Woods Cross family has won more than double the amount of money that the Utah Department of Transportation wanted to pay for farmland that lies in the path of the Legacy Parkway.
On Wednesday evening, a 3rd District Court jury decided the Thalman family deserved $4.3 million for 237 acres of property on the west side of Redwood Road south of 500 South between Woods Cross and West Bountiful. The property has been in the family for more than 100 years.
"A lot of people feel they can't fight the government. And a lot of people don't," said attorney Rob Mansfield, who represented the family during the two-day trial. "This is a good example of the exercise of [property rights], to have the jury determine the value of the property."
The jury added $1.2 million in interest, making the total award $5.5 million - $200,000 more than the family asked for in 2001, when UDOT moved to condemn the farmland after offering $1.9 million.
Court costs weren't covered in the decision, said Mansfield, who wouldn't disclose those costs.
UDOT spokesman Adan Carrillo declined to comment on the jury's decision, saying the agency official responsible for keeping track of rights-of-way purchases and court cases was not available for an interview Thursday.
Family members also declined to comment.
The Verl Thalman farmhouse familiar to Davis County residents wasn't part of the sale, nor were any other outbuildings on the property, Mansfield said. The family has run cattle on the land and has grown alfalfa, he said.
In preparation for constructing the roadway then called the Legacy Highway, UDOT in 2001 had the Thalman property appraised and determined that except for the acreage that the highway would occupy and the land that bordered Redwood Road, it was essentially worthless, Mansfield said.
The family's appraiser said the property was worth $5.3 million. UDOT rejected that appraisal and took occupancy of 237 acres of the farmland's total 361 acres and sued the family.
Just 23 of the 237 acres underlies the road; the rest is on the west side of what now is the Legacy Parkway. UDOT had to purchase the extra acres because the parkway cut the property in half, leaving the family no access to the western acreage, Mansfield said.
Though UDOT would not comment on its current property acquisitions, two years ago an agency spokesman said about 200 property owners were along the Legacy right of way. UDOT has spent more than $70 million so far on the property.