Under I.R.C.P. 43(f), during a trial, the court may order that the court or jury may view the property that is subject to the action. This Court addressed the substantive weight afforded to a court view in Lobdell v. State ex rel. Bd. of Highway Dir., a case involving an inverse condemnation. 89 Idaho 559, 407 P.2d 135 (1965). In Lobdell, after the judge had viewed the property in question, the district court granted an offset to the plaintiff for restoration of access to their property that had been limited by curbing constructed by the defendant.

BISTLINE, Justice, dissenting. Lobdell v. State of Idaho, 89 Idaho 559, 407 P.2d 135 (1965), was an earlier inverse condemnation case much like the one under review, and for that reason the parties were asked to comment on its applicability, and have done so. Additionally, we have access to the record in that case, and also the briefs — all being available through the office of the Clerk. Lobdell was filed in 1957, but not tried until June of 1962, on the issues raised by the Lobdells' amended complaint and the state's answer thereto filed ten days before trial.

This Court has previously decided that in an inverse condemnation proceeding damages are to be assessed at the time of taking. In Lobdell v. State, 89 Idaho 559, 407 P.2d 135 (1965), a case involving impairment of the access to the plaintiff's property, the Court stated: "The basis of the damages awarded is . . . the difference in the value of the property before and after the destruction or impairment of the access . . . ."

present, put observations on record, not used as evidence to resolve facts); see also Evans, 527 P.2d at 331-32 (motion for summary judgment, court viewed without party consent; held harmless error because evidence otherwise insufficient to warrant submission to jury). Similarly, in the cases that were reversed the appellate court generally found the trial court findings did rely on the improper view.See Noble v. Kertz Sons Feed Fuel Co., 72 Cal.App.2d 153, 164 P.2d 257, 259-60 (1945) (judge inspected property without presence or consent of parties, findings were contrary to other evidence); Denver Omnibus Cab Co. v. J.R. Ward Auction Co., 47 Colo. 446, 107 P. 1073, 1074 (1910) (judge viewed scene without notice or consent of parties, based on view decided wagon driver's testimony not credible); Brown v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp., 210 Ga. 580, 82 S.E.2d 12, 15-16 (1954) (judge visited site without consent or notice to parties and used view as integral part of judgment); Lobdell v. State, 89 Idaho 559, 407 P.2d 135, 140 (1965) (judge viewed property with no notice to parties and based findings on view; held view is not to be used as evidence); Belmont Nursing Home v. Illinois Dep't of Public Aid, 108 Ill.App.3d 660, 64 Ill.Dec. 260, 439 N.E.2d 511, 514 (1982) (hearing for motion to stay enforcement, judge viewed premises and used as evidence; held view cannot be used as evidence); Owings v. Talbott, 262 Ky. 550, 90 S.W.2d 723, 725 (1936) (judge viewed area, no notice to counsel, judge indicated he based decision on view); Valentine v. Malone, 269 Mich. 619, 257 N.W. 900, 904 (1934) (judge viewed after trial, relied on personal observations in decision, in Michigan view is not evidence); Conner v. Parker, 181 S.W.2d 873, 874 (Tex.Civ.App. 1944) (statute precludes jury from using view as evidence; held reversible error where judge sitting as trier of fact based decision on view). We have found only one case in which the state court reversed on the basis of an improper view alone, without addressing whether

the effect of supplying evidence independent of, or in addition to, that taken in the course of the trial, or supplanted evidence adduced,’ the site visit was improper and amounts to reversible error." (Quoting from Lobdell v. State Bd. of Highway Dirs., 89 Idaho 559, 568, 407 P.2d 135, 140 (1969) ). The Siegwarths do not cite to anything in the record supporting their allegation.

In such an informal taking this Court has decided that damages for inverse condemnation should be assessed at the time the taking occurs. Tibbs v. City of Sandpoint, 100 Idaho 667, 670, 603 P.2d 1001, 1004 (1979) (citing Lobdell v. State, 89 Idaho 559, 407 P.2d 135 (1965)). The time of taking occurs, and hence the cause of action accrues, as of the time that the full extent of the plaintiff's loss of use and enjoyment of the property becomes apparent.

Merritt, supra, 113 Idaho 147, 742 P.2d at 402. In my Merritt dissent, I spoke similarly by quoting from a brief authored by counsel for the State in the case of Lobdell v. State of Idaho, 89 Idaho 559, 407 P.2d 135 (1965): While no clear cut rule existed in 1957 at the time respondents constructed the highway adjacent to appellants' premisses, nevertheless on several occasions since then this Court has determined and declared that access rights are a property interest.

The assertion is without merit. In Lobdell v. State, 89 Idaho 559, 568, 407 P.2d 135, 140 (1965), an inverse condemnation action, the court reiterated the well settled rule that views are discretionary, and that views are not evidentiary in nature but rather a means of assisting the trier of fact in its weighing of the evidence. "A view or inspection of the character under consideration is permissible for the purpose of enabling the court properly to understand the evidence, and properly to apply it. A view may be considered as bearing on the credibility of the witnesses who appeared at the trial.

369 U.S. at 89, 90, 82 S.Ct. at 534. This Court has entertained such claims when a government project interferes with private property rights by the flooding of neighboring land, Renninger v. State, 70 Idaho 170, 213 P.2d 911 (1950); Zollinger v. Big Lost River Irrigation District, 83 Idaho 411, 364 P.2d 176 (1961); or by impairing access to an owner's property through the destruction of his ingress-egress curb cuts, Hughes v. State, 80 Idaho 286, 328 P.2d 397 (1958); Mabe v. State, 83 Idaho 222, 360 P.2d 799 (1961); Lobdell v. State, 89 Idaho 559, 407 P.2d 135 (1965); Snyder v. State, 92 Idaho 175, 438 P.2d 920 (1968); or by converting the airspace over an owner's land to public use, Roark v. City of Caldwell, 87 Idaho 557, 394 P.2d 641 (1964). Idaho's inverse condemnation cases form a pattern with common elements: (1) a governmental project of some sort (a new bridge, a reconstructed highway, a dam operation, an airport extension) is undertaken; (2) the construction or operation thereof damages or destroys the vested property rights of an adjoining land owner; (3) after which suit is brought to recover damages.

"During the period between the initial reception by the court of testimony in this matter and the later portion of the bifurcated trial, Judge Theron W. Ward, presiding in this matter, stated to me that he had viewed the property and the adjacent area." In Lobdell v. State, 89 Idaho 559, 407 P.2d 135 (1965), this Court found that the trial court erred where it entered findings based on a view of the premises when such inspection was made without notice to the parties. In the present case there is no evidence of such a view by the trial court either in the transcript or in the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. Although appellant was allegedly aware of the view well before the trial had ended he did not raise the matter until after judgment had been entered.