State owes family $1.3-million

A jury favors horse farm owners who said offers for 9 acres taken near the Suncoast Parkway were inadequate.

By CHASE SQUIRES

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 18, 2000

DADE CITY -- A jury deliberated more than four hours Friday night before awarding a Pasco County family more than $1.3-million for 9 acres that the state took to create a swamp.

The state Department of Transportation offered $176,000 last year when it took the parcel along State Road 54, 1,800 feet east of the Suncoast Parkway. Owners Elliott and Gloria Fuentes felt that portion of their horse farm was worth more because of its potential commercial use, their son said.

After a five-day trial before Circuit Judge Maynard Swanson, the 12-member jury began deliberating after 5 p.m. Friday, returning with a verdict about 10 p.m.

The jury went far above the state's later offers of $300,000 and $575,000, with an award of $1,375,000.

The verdict requires the state to pay the full amount, plus legal fees, court costs and a year's worth of interest -- at 12 percent -- for every dollar of the award over the state's initial offer, according to Elliot Fuentes' son, Lawrence.

"My family is very excited," Lawrence Fuentes said Monday. "When you can't settle, you leave it in the hands of the jury. There's always anxiety of what they are going to decide. We're very grateful to the jury."

According to the court file, the DOT took the land from the 100-acre Hayman-Fuentes Farm, a horse farm Elliot Fuentes and his late brother, Solly Hayman, established in 1958. The land is owned by the Fuentes family and a Hayman family trust.

Fuentes family attorney Andrew Prince Brigham, of the firm Brigham Moore in Jacksonville and Tampa, said he focused on fairness during the trial.

"The whole idea in a condemnation is to make the owner whole, to make sure you don't have essentially one individual paying more for a road than everyone else because he has to give up some valuable land," Brigham said. "When you go to sell your land, you can say "No' to a low offer. You can't do that with the government." Brigham said he did not anticipate an appeal.

The property was especially valuable because of its proximity to the Suncoast Parkway, and the state is taking not just a strip of land for road widening, but also room for a retention pond and wetland. The project takes away much of the property's value for commercial use, he said.

Brigham said the family had offered to settle the suit for $950,000.

The Hayman-Fuentes Farm was the early training ground for 1985 Kentucky Derby winner Spend a Buck, owned by a friend of the Fuentes family.

"My father put the first bit in that horse's mouth," Lawrence Fuentes said. "It was a Cinderella story for us."

Lawrence Fuentes said his family has no plans to sell the land, but there have been plenty of offers from developers eager to take advantage of the prime location next to the Suncoast Parkway.

"He's not going to sell," Lawrence Fuentes said. "My father is 72. He has no interest in selling that property. He always says, "Where would I go?' That's his office. He's there every day."

The state plans to use about 11/2 acres of the 9 acres to widen SR 54. The rest of the land would be used to replace wetlands damaged by parkway construction, according to court documents.

Attorneys for the Florida Department of Transportation were not available for comment Monday.

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