Morris County Jury Awards $1.2 Million for Taking of Auto Body Shop
A Morris County jury awarded $1.2 million last week to the owners of an auto body shop on Route 46 in Dover for the taking of that property by the New Jersey Department of Transportation by eminent domain. The civil jury rendered a unanimous verdict of $1.2 million to Peter and Maria Kavrazonis as just compensation for the State’s taking of their property in connection with the State’s realignment of Routes 46 and 15 in Dover.
The State had contended that the property, which contained an auto repair shop, office and billboard space, was worth $700,000. But the jury sided with the property owners’ arguments and testimony from the owners’ appraiser that the property was worth $1.2 million.
The property owner in this case was represented by McKirdy & Riskin’s Joseph W. Grather, who indicated that the repair shop recently was torn down as part of the realignment, and that the owner Peter Kavrazonis — who worked in the automotive repair industry in Dover for 25 years — had since taken a job as an employee with another service station.
