Jury expected to set compensation for home Attnys. seek $633K for MacCloud home; city paid $140K BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer LONG BRANCH - It has been five years since Bruce MacCloud was forcibly removed from his oceanfront home that had been condemned by the city to make way for a private redevelopment project. This week the value of that property was to be determined by a jury. The condemnation trial to establish a figure for the just compensation for MacCloud's former home on Cooper Avenue in the Beachfront North Phase I redevelopment zone began last week in state Superior Court in Freehold. "The biggest point in the case is the location of [MacCloud's] property," said William J. Ward of Carlin & Ward, the firm representing MacCloud. In court, Arthur G. Warden III of the Florham Park firm is arguing the case for MacCloud. Warden is seeking an award of $633,000 for MacCloud's 17-room Victorian home that was located a block and a half from the ocean. The city paid MacCloud $140,000 in 2002 for the home that was taken through eminent domain for a luxury condominium project. "We are using comparable sales in the beach block," Ward said about the comparables used to determine the true value of the home. [The city] is using sales west of Ocean Boulevard, which we say are another market. We don't think they are comparable either by location or condition." He continued, "The beach block is unique to itself. There are not many comparable sales on the beach block in Long Branch because they have condemned most of them. "We had to take two sales from the Elberon section. They are right in the block between Ocean Boulevard and the beach," he said. Paul V. Fernicola, of Red Bank, who is representing the city in the case, could not be reached for comment by deadline Tuesday. In court, Fernicola argued that the city's appraisal has been upped to $147,000, which is based on an appraisal that reflects the rundown condition of the neighborhood at the time of the condemnation. Motions and jury selection in the case took place Sept. 17, and the trial began in state Superior Court civil division Sept. 18. The case was still ongoing as of Tuesday and the jury was expected to make a decision Wednesday, according to Ward's office. The case is being heard in Superior Court Judge Daniel M. Waldman's chambers. "I know this is a hot-button issue in Long Branch," Waldman said in court on the first day of the trial. "I know your client has been distressed, as have others." Waldman made it clear in court that the only issue to be argued in the trial was the value of the property, and that this would not be a case to determine the issue of eminent domain. "The trial here is not going to be to air the merits of eminent domain," Waldman said. "I don't care how [the property] got that way [at the time of the condemnation]. "I don't care what it looks like now. My only concern is what this property and surrounding area looked like at the time of the taking." Warden was seeking a motion for a "jury view" to be granted, which would allow jury members to visit the actual site of the property, a practice that is permitted at a judge's discretion in compensation trials. "The issue is about location," Warden said in court. "The MacCloud property was on the beachfront in Long Branch, and that is significant. The road is still there. "The ocean is there. The beach is there. The promenade is there," he said, adding, "We want the jury to see, to help [them] better understand … that we are concerned with the location of the property." Fernicola argued that a judge would not allow the fact that the home was taken for a condominium redevelopment project to be brought up in a compensation case. "You bring the jury down there and have them stand on the property and see the condominiums and then say disregard the condominiums that we just showed you," Fernicola said in court. "This is the reason there is a discretion." Waldman agreed with Fernicola and denied the motion, stating that there should not be a viewing of the area, since it has changed "so dramatically" since MacCloud's property was acquired by the city. "I think [the jury] is going to get the flavor," Waldman said. "I do think they understand the ocean. I have a problem putting the jury there, five-and-a-half years later, to a very luxurious redevelopment area." He added that the jurors would be able to see aerial photographs as well as photos of the comparable houses appraisers retained by Ward's firm used to make their judgment. "Bruce doesn't have a home," Ward said this week. "Hopefully, after this jury trial is over, he will." The city has paid MacCloud $140,000 for his home, an amount that does not reflect the true worth of the property, according to Ward. "This has been five years for him," Ward said. "He did get $140,000, which he had to split with his ex-wife." The city's appraisal firm, McGuire Associates of Jersey City, appraised MacCloud's home at $140,000. The amount was later increased to $147,000. An appraisal conducted in 2003 by Richard Hall, who was hired by MacCloud's previous attorney, set the value of the home at $210,000. In 2005, Ward hired appraiser Ken Jones of Clark, who valued the property at $633,000. The city has argued that Jones' appraisal is based on comparables from another portion of the city that has multimillion-dollar homes, according to Ward. The appraiser used homes in the Elberon section of the city that had the same location as MacCloud's home, Ward said, adding that Elberon does not have the boardwalk and promenade along the beach that MacCloud had in his neighborhood. "[The city] think[s] they offered me just compensation for $140,000," MacCloud said in a previous interview. "I feel that's unjust compensation," he said. "Do you know anywhere in Monmouth County where you can buy a house for $140,000?" MacCloud, 54, an employee of the Middletown Board of Education, has been awaiting his day in court for half a decade, according to Ward. MacCloud was physically removed from the home he owned for 23 years on Nov. 6, 2002. On the morning of his eviction, Mac- Cloud said that six police officers, a locksmith, animal control for his 13-year-old black shepherd, and fire bureau officials gathered on his property to escort him out of his home. He was temporarily relocated to the Fountains Motel on Ocean Avenue and his belongings were moved into storage units in Tinton Falls, Neptune and Long Branch that were paid for by the city for one year, according to MacCloud. Currently he is living with a friend in Red Bank and his belongings are being held for him at Long Branch resident Kevin Brown's Broadway building that is located in the Broadway redevelopment zone.