Utah judges sided with an American Fork Target when the Utah Department of Transportation tried to overturn an earlier court’s ruling to pay the big box store over $2 million for damages caused by a “massive” highway interchange.
The Utah Court of Appeals found the Interstate 15 interchange near Main Street — built on a small parcel of land belonging to Target and developing company Weingarten Miller American Fork LLC — blocked motorists’ view of the store, as well as limited shoppers’ options to exit the parking lot. Those losses amounted to more than $2.3 million in severance damages, according to a court decision filed Thursday.
(Tribune file photo) American Fork 500 East Interchange Progress in October 2011.
UDOT had appealed the Fourth District Court’s 2015 ruling, arguing Target didn’t provide sufficient evidence of the damages or what caused them.
UDOT argued Target had not proved through testimony at the previous jury trial that the property UDOT took from the store to build the interchange was “essential for the competition of the [interchange] project as a whole,” according to the ruling.
The appeals court ruled Target didn’t have to prove the land taken from the company to build the exchanges was “essential” to the whole project to be awarded severance damages. It just needed to prove that some part of the project was built on its land.
“Because the Interchange was at least partially built on the taken property, a causal link between the taking and [Target’s] severance damages for loss of visibility is presumed,” according to the ruling.
Representatives of UDOT and Target did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday evening.
Follow @PaightenHarkins