In May of this year, Division One of the Court of Appeals sided with a property owner against the City of Phoenix in City of Phoenix v. Garretson.  In building its light rail system, the City had condemned property of Garretson which abutted Jefferson Street.  As part of the condemnation proceedings, Garretson sought “severance” damages for his loss of access to Jefferson.  The City persuaded the trial judge to deny that claim on the grounds that Garretson retained other, albeit circuitous, access to his property.  The Court of Appeals disagreed.  The Court of Appeal distinguished previous cases which had denied severance damages to property owners whose access to an abutting street had been modified but not totally cut off.  Finally, the Court of Appeals noted that the damage claim of Garretson was not strictly, severance damages, and that it would be his burden of proving that he suffered damages and how much, in this new trial.