THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 TAG: 9604160307
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
One of the owners of Hatteras Island land that is being claimed by the Dare County School Board for athletic fields testified Monday she could not set a price because her husband's ashes were strewn on what was to have been their retirement site.
But an attorney for the School Board contended that facts - not emotions - should be used to determine a fair price for the land.
A Superior Court jury of six men and six women will decide how much the 5.3-acre tract of land is worth in the latest chapter of a case that challenges the government's right to take property through eminent domain.
Last year, the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed lower court rulings that allowed the Dare County Board of Education to take six tracts of land on Hatteras Island that are owned by two Maryland families.
Now a Dare County court must determine how much the owners are to be compensated for the property.
The School Board wants to use the land for new athletic fields at Cape Hatteras School. The property owners, Elpis Sakaria and Mr. and Mrs. Jack Hillman, say the land was taken illegally. Regardless of the outcome of the compensation trial, the families say they will appeal the condemnation issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, in opening arguments Monday before Superior Court Judge James Ragan III of Bayboro, attorneys for both sides said there is only one issue in the case: the fair market value of the property.
One of the property owners testified Monday that because of her family's ties to the tract, there is no way she could determine the real value of the land.
Elpin Sakaria testified that she and her husband, Jack, had purchased the Buxton property in 1977, after regular visits to the island since 1964. She also said that after her husband died in 1985 in Greece from a heart attack during a terrorist attack on the Rome airport his ashes were scattered on the Hatteras Island property.
``I couldn't place a monetary value on the property,'' she said. ``We have a lot of dreams and emotions that are there. My husband's ashes are there. I was not willing to sell the property.''
Sakaria said that her family had also been approached by the Division of Coastal Management and the North Carolina Department of Conservation on earlier occasions about selling the land, and both times, she told them she was not interested.
She also accused the school board of discriminatory practices.
``The School Board says it wants the land for the children. What about my children and my grandchildren?,'' she said. ``It's like they are discriminating against one group in favor of another.
``Is that justice?''
Norm Shearin, attorney for the property owners, said the land was worth far more than the school board was willing to pay. Brian Howell, an attorney for the board, urged the jury to be objective in determining the land's worth.
``We're not going to controvert everything the land owners have to say,'' Howell said. ``But we're going to fight every step of the way on the fair market value of the property.''
He added, ``This is not a case of emotion. This is a case of data and facts and common sense.'' by CNB