Real Property – Damages – Driveway Relocation

Bacstrom v. Foye. (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-16-0001, 6 pp.) (Cressie Thigpen, J.) Appealed from Franklin County District Court. (S. Quon Bridges, J.) N.C. App. Unpublished. Click here for the full text of the opinion.

Holding: In a bench trial, the trial court was free to weigh the evidence and find that the damaged area of land was 800 square feet, an amount between the contractor’s estimate of 1,500 square feet and the plaintiff-landowner’s testimony that he measured the damaged road frontage at four feet deep by 100 feet long.

We affirm judgment for plaintiffs.

Where the contractor’s estimate to fix the road was $2,975, and where defendant presented testimony that it would cost $300 to cover the entire road, the trial court’s award of $1,200 in damages was supported by the evidence.