Jury awards $5.8 million in land condemnation case

After a week-long civil trial before District Judge Mike Griffin, the jury granted the award plus interest, which could add another $2 million to the total.

The nearly 7-acre parcel, on the east side of the U.S.50-U.S.395 junction on the south end of Carson City, had been appraised by the state at $1.7 million. But Serpa's appraiser had valued it at $6.5 million.

Laura FitzSimmons, Serpa's lawyer, termed the jury verdict "another example of how important it is, when government is taking someone's land, to go to a jury to get fair compensation."

Serpa, who owned the land since the early 1980s, had to give it up in 1993. The state paid him $940,000.

The proposed bypass around the capital city's crowded downtown has a total estimated cost of more than $200 million. Carson City imposed a gasoline tax to contribute to the project, and the state has already spent millions on acquiring land from one end of the city to the other.

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