Casey Pipes represented a convenience store developer in a land condemnation action brought in Mobile County Circuit Court by the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT). The site had been acquired years previously by a different convenience store developer, and the current owner came into ownership through a stock acquisition of the prior owner. The site had never developed, and it was raw land at the time of the taking. A new round-about project took over 1.25 acres from the 2.1-acre parcel and damaged the fair market value of the remaining land. ALDOT’s initial offer was $103,320. The case did not settle at mediation, and the issue of the amount of just compensation owed to the owner went to a jury trial in March of 2024. The final recovery was $382,165–3.7 times the amount of ALDOT’s initial offer.

Please add this in staging before pushing live. Client review is needed.

Let me know if you have any questions!

On March 15, 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed a jury verdict in favor of a local hospital in a case involving a visitor who was injured in a fall caused by an eloping psychiatric patient. The underlying case was tried to a defense verdict in a four-day trial in January of 2023 by the Helmsing Leach team of Ryan Luna, Win Stuardi, and Karen Tucker in Mobile County, Alabama. On appeal, the plaintiff raised substantive and procedural issues, and the appellate team, led by Bill Watts, successfully defended against the plaintiff’s assertions that the trial court erred in its rulings on numerous issues, including jury selection and the admissibility of evidence.