Mississippi High Court Nixes Appraisal Testimony in Condemnation Proceedings

In an eminent domain proceeding, the Supreme Court of Mississippi (a Daubert state) has reversed the trial court's ruling admitting testimony from the government's appraiser. Relying on the discounted cash flow method, the appraiser computed a value for the utility properties based on data from the Public Utilities Commission. However, the PUC rate base excluded "contributed assets," such as pipelines, easements, wells, and tank sites deeded over to the utility by developers for no consideration. Such assets accounted for about half the physical assets at issue. The expert was therefore held to have relied on insufficient facts or data. See Dedeaux Util. Co. v. City of Gulfport, No. 2005-CA-00102-SCT (Miss. Sept. 28, 2006).