PITTMAN, Judge.
This appeal, transferred to this court by the Alabama Supreme Court pursuant to § 12-2-7(6), Ala.Code 1975, concerns the res judicata effect of a judgment condemning a portion of a tract of real property upon a subsequent civil action in tort alleging damage to the remainder of the tract.
In 2003, Hillcrest, Ltd. ("the partnership"), sued the City of Mobile ("the City") and a number of fictitiously named defendants in the Mobile Circuit Court. In its complaint, the partnership alleged that in 1979 it had purchased a tract of land located at the corner of Hillcrest Road and Girby Road in Mobile; that the City had thereafter approved development of nearby land and that the resulting development had increased the amount of water flowing onto the tract; that the State of Alabama ("the State"), acting by and through the Alabama Department of Transportation, had condemned a portion of the tract in order to widen Hillcrest Road and to permit the installation of a large drainage ditch to carry surface water; and that the eventual installation of the ditch had prevented ingress to and egress from the tract from its Hillcrest Road frontage. The complaint asserted that the City's having permitted the nearby development had required the construction of the ditch and had resulted in a diminution of the value of the tract, and the partnership asserted claims of trespass, nuisance, and negligence against the City. The City answered the complaint, asserting, among other things, that the partnership had failed to present its claims in a timely manner,
In August 2009, the City filed a motion for a summary judgment asserting that the partnership's claims were barred by the doctrine of res judicata because, the City said, the issue of damage to the remainder of the tract from the loss of ingress and egress had been finally determined in the condemnation action; the City also contended that any other claims against the City had been "abandoned" or were without admissible evidentiary support. The City filed in support of its motion the judgment in the condemnation
Our standard of review of summary judgments is well settled:
Sizemore v. Owner-Operator Indep. Drivers Ass'n, Inc., 671 So.2d 674, 675 (Ala.Civ. App.1995) (citations omitted).
The record reveals that the tract at issue, as it measured in 1979, was undeveloped land that bordered both Hillcrest Road and Girby Road. When the State planned to widen Hillcrest Road, condemnation proceedings were commenced that resulted in the State's acquisition of a strip of land taken from the western border of the tract along its Hillcrest Road frontage. It is within that condemned strip that a drainage ditch has been installed that has blocked ingress to and egress from the tract from Hillcrest Road.
To the extent that the partnership has sought a judgment compelling the City to either build bridges over the drainage ditch located within the land taken from the tract by the State or to respond in damages for the taking of the ingress and egress as to the Hillcrest Road frontage, we must agree with the City that the partnership's claims are barred. Under Alabama law, if there is a partial taking of a tract via eminent domain, "the valuation rule is the difference between the fair market value of the entire property before the taking and the fair market value of the remainder after the taking," with "fair market value" being "the price the property would bring" when voluntarily offered for sale and purchase "after due consideration of all the elements affecting value." Ala.Code 1975, §§ 18-1A-170(b) and 18-1A-172. Specifically, our Supreme Court has held that when property is condemned and the abutting property owner is thereby denied access to a public highway, that circumstance is an element to be considered by the trier of fact "in arriving at just compensation to be awarded the owner of the land." St. Clair County v. Bukacek, 272 Ala. 323, 330, 131 So.2d 683, 689 (1961). Thus, the jury's award of $80,000 in damages and compensation in the condemnation action operated as a merger of any claims the partnership might otherwise have asserted by virtue of the loss of access to Hillcrest Road from the tract.
Our conclusion is bolstered by reference to City of Huntsville v. Goodenrath, 13 Ala.App. 579, 68 So. 676 (1915). In Goodenrath, a municipal board of commissioners determined that improvements to a municipal thoroughfare by a city had caused the value of a parcel of property along that route to have increased by $37.80, notwithstanding that the improvements
13 Ala.App. at 591-97, 68 So. at 680-82 (emphasis added; citations omitted). Because the commissioners had already found that the owner's parcel in Goodenrath had not been damaged by the project necessitating the taking, but in fact that it had been benefited thereby, a second action seeking damages based upon a claimed detriment could not properly proceed to a judgment in favor of the owner.
The partnership in this case, noting the general requirements for the issue-preclusion branch of the doctrine of res judicata that were summarized in Dairyland Insurance Co. v. Jackson, 566 So.2d 723,
Having identified the proper preclusion doctrine, we next consider whether the partnership's arguments have any force. Although the partnership asserts that the State was the partnership's adversary in the condemnation action, whereas the City is the partnership's adversary in this case, Wheeler states that under Alabama law, the third element of res judicata—"identity of the parties"—"does not require complete identity, but only that the party against whom res judicata is asserted was a party before." 364 So.2d at 1200 (emphasis added; citing Geer Bros., Inc. v. Crump, 349 So.2d 577 (Ala.1977)). Here, the partnership actively participated in the condemnation action and obtained a judgment in the circuit court that was more favorable to its interests than an earlier probate-court judgment had been; thus, the identity-of-the-parties criterion is satisfied. Similarly, the partnership's interest in obtaining a larger award of damages and compensation in the condemnation action is parallel to its interest in the tort action against the City in seeking damages and injunctive relief for the same claimed wrong: the loss of access to Hillcrest Road from the tract. As the Court of Appeals stated in Goodenrath, conduct of a sovereign in making private property abutting a street more inaccessible "furnishes a right of action therefor to the owner of such property, unless, of course, the damages have previously been ascertained and paid under condemnation proceedings." 13 Ala.App. at 589, 68 So. at 680 (emphasis added). Further, under Robinson v. Holley, 549 So.2d 1, 2 (Ala.1989), the partnership's assertion, in this action, of a demand for injunctive relief not stated in the condemnation action does not destroy the preclusive effect of the condemnation judgment as to any theory that the partnership could have asserted respecting damage to its property interests arising from the State's taking a portion of the tract for the purpose of constructing a widened road and a drainage ditch.
We thus agree with the City that the summary judgment is due to be affirmed with respect to the partnership's claims arising out of the tract's having been "landlocked" as to Hillcrest Road. However, we part company with the City to the extent that it asserts that the summary judgment was correct in all respects. As we have noted, the negligence, nuisance, and trespass claims asserted by the partnership stem not only from the denial of access to Hillcrest Road, but also from claimed intrusions of surface water that predate the condemnation action and the subsequent construction of the drainage ditch. Those theories of recovery against the City were not at issue in the condemnation
Based upon the foregoing facts and authorities, the summary judgment is affirmed in part and is reversed in part. The cause is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART; AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.
THOMPSON, P.J., and THOMAS and MOORE, JJ., concur.
BRYAN, J., concurs in part and concurs in the result, with writing.
BRYAN, Judge, concurring in part and concurring in the result.
I concur in the result in that part of the main opinion addressing the claim-preclusion issue. I concur in all other respects.
PITTMAN, Judge.
On application for rehearing, the appellee City of Mobile posits, and the dissent agrees, that this court has reversed the trial court's judgment, in part, on a ground not asserted by the appellant, Hillcrest, Ltd. Suffice it to say that after the appellant's brief had challenged the correctness of the summary judgment in its entirety, particularly arguing that the condemnation action brought by the state did not have any preclusive effect, the City of Mobile's appellee's brief sought to defend the trial court's summary judgment as it applied to the claimed intrusions of surface water between 1979 and the subsequent construction of the drainage ditch on the basis that those claims had been "abandoned." Although it is, of course, proper for an appellee to seek affirmance of a summary judgment upon any ground that might appear of record "unless due-process constraints require otherwise" (Wheeler v. George, 39 So.3d 1061, 1083 (Ala.2009)), it is likewise proper for an appellate court to determine whether those arguments are valid (and to decide, when appropriate, that they are not, as in this case). Because the opinion on original deliverance is responsive to the issues presented by the parties, the application for rehearing is overruled.
APPLICATION OVERRULED.
THOMPSON, P.J., and BRYAN and THOMAS, JJ., concur.
MOORE, J., dissents, with writing.
MOORE, Judge, dissenting.
I concurred in this court's opinion issued in this case on November 19, 2010. In its application for rehearing, the City of Mobile argues that Hillcrest, Ltd., did not
Based on the foregoing, I dissent to the overruling of the City of Mobile's application for rehearing.