Hilliard City Schools Board of Education v. Franklin County Board of Revision

2014 Ohio 853, 9 N.E.3d 920, 139 Ohio St. 3d 1
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 11, 2014
Docket2012-1015 and 2012-1016
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 2014 Ohio 853 (Hilliard City Schools Board of Education v. Franklin County Board of Revision) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hilliard City Schools Board of Education v. Franklin County Board of Revision, 2014 Ohio 853, 9 N.E.3d 920, 139 Ohio St. 3d 1 (Ohio 2014).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} In these appeals, the owner of several self-storage facilities in Franklin County contests the decision of the Board of Tax Appeals (“BTA”), which adopted the 2006 sale prices as the value of those properties for the 2006 tax year. All the properties at issue were acquired by U-Store-It, L.P., in a bulk purchase in 2006. U-Store-It raises the primary contention that the 2006 sale involved related parties and therefore could not qualify as an arm’s-length transaction for purposes of valuing the properties. U-Store-It also contends that the sale prices cannot be used because they include consideration paid for personal property as well as real property.

{¶ 2} We hold that because the record contained affirmative evidence supporting the use of the stated sale prices as the value of the properties for tax-year 2006, and because U-Store-It failed to substantiate its claim that the sale prices should be allocated between real and personal property, the BTA did not act unreasonably or unlawfully in adopting the 2006 sale prices. We therefore affirm the decision of the BTA.

*2 Facts

{¶ 3} We confront two appeals from two BTA decisions. Case No. 2012-1015 addresses the 2006 tax-year value of one self-storage facility located in the Hilliard City School District; case No. 2012-1016 addresses the 2006 tax-year value of two such facilities located in the South-Western City School District. 1 All three self-storage facilities were acquired by U-Store-It in the same transaction, and the issue of their value turns on the resolution of the same legal and factual questions. The appeals were consolidated for argument before the master commissioner, and we now dispose of them with a single decision.

A. The properties at issue were all sold to Jernigan Property Group in 2005, then sold by Jernigan to U-Store-It in 2006

{¶ 4} Twice in a little over a year, the properties at issue were transferred. The first sale occurred in April 2005, in which Jernigan Property Group purchased several facilities; the second sale occurred in August 2006, in which Jernigan Property Group sold nine properties to U-Store-It for more than $44 million. Both times, the sale contracts separately set forth the consideration for each property, and the 2006 sale prices as allocated by the contract were reported as the sale price on the conveyance-fee statements.

{¶ 5} The Hilliard City Schools Board of Education and the South-Western City Schools Board of Education (“school boards” or “school board”) filed complaints in relation to the properties located in their respective districts. Another self-storage facility that was part of the 2006 sale is located in the Reynoldsburg City School District, and the BTA’s decision in that case was also appealed to this court. That case has settled, however. 134 Ohio St.3d 1477, 2013-Ohio-770, 984 N.E.2d 22. Nevertheless, the record of that case was incorporated into the records of the cases before us, and we will consult the evidence in that record in reviewing the BTA’s decisions.

{¶ 6} The school boards’ complaints asked that the 2006 sale prices be applied to the individual properties for the 2006 tax year. The Franklin County Board of Revision (“BOR”) determined that the 2006 sale did not qualify as an arm’s-length transaction and therefore adopted the 2005 sale prices for tax year 2006 instead. The BTA reversed and adopted the 2006 sale prices as the 2006 property values.

{¶ 7} Below is a chart showing the values assigned to the properties at issue here for tax year 2006, in these proceedings:

*3 [[Image here]]

B. What the evidence shows

1. Evidence pertaining to the arm’s-length character of the 2006 sale

{¶ 8} At the November 26, 2007 BOR hearings, U-Store-It’s counsel introduced both testimony and documents. The documents included the purchase agreements for the 2005 sale to Jernigan Property Group and the 2006 sale by Jernigan Property Group to U-Store-It, along with closing statements and a copy of a Form 10-Q filed by U-Store-It.

{¶ 9} The Form 10-Q, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) required of U-Store-It Trust as a publicly traded entity listed on the New York Stock Exchange, disclosed that the 2006 sale was in a certain respect a “related-party” transaction. The disclosure points out that the sale contract was entered into between Jernigan Property Group as seller and U-Store-It as buyer on April 3, 2006. Dean Jernigan, who was president of Jernigan Property Group and held “a 20% beneficial interest in one self-storage facility partially owned by Jernigan Property Group and related companies and partnerships,” was appointed president and chief executive officer (“CEO”) of U-Store-It Trust on April 24, 2006. The transaction “was subject to review and final approval by a majority of the independent members of the Company’s Board of Trustees.” The 10-Q further noted that “Mr. Jernigan has discontinued all involvement in the day-today management or operation of the Jernigan Property Group.”

{¶ 10} U-Store-It relies on the Form 10-Q as establishing that the 2006 sale was not at arm’s length, because it was a related-party transaction for SEC reporting purposes.

{¶ 11} Kathleen Weigand, executive vice-president, general counsel, and secretary of U-Store-It Trust, testified. She reiterated the points made in the 10-Q *4 and emphasized the importance of a noncompete clause in the 2006 sale agreement, to which Jernigan personally was made a party.

{¶ 12} In her testimony, Weigand fleshed out the disclosure of the related-party transaction. Weigand added that Jernigan “had an interest” in the Jernigan Property Group, L.L.C. But notable by its absence is any testimony — or any statement in the Form 10-Q itself — that (1) Jernigan had previously owned or acquired an interest in U-Store-It Trust or that (2) Jernigan Property Group and U-Store-It were in any other respect under common ownership.

2. Evidence relating to the value of the properties

{¶ 13} Weigand also testified that in conjunction with the 2006 purchase, U-Store-It did not commission outside appraisals, but did perform underwriting in-house, “placing a value on the properties based on net operating income,” including developing a cap rate and taking into account vacancy loss and cash flow from rents. This in-house underwriting was the basis for the per-property allocated purchase price for each parcel set forth in the 2006 sale.

{¶ 14} Weigand’s testimony describes, in essence, an income approach, performed by U-Store-It itself, from which the sale prices for the individual properties were developed. That process also helped persuade the independent trustees of U-Store-It Trust that the deal was fair in the context of Dean Jernigan profiting from the trust’s purchase while contemporaneously being hired as the trust’s new CEO.

{¶ 15} U-Store-It has also advanced an argument that the sale prices of the facilities at issue include personal property as well as realty.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

OTR Hous. Assocs., LTD. v. Cincinnati School Dist. Bd. of Edn.
2021 Ohio 3231 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2021)
Columbus City Schools Bd. of Edn. v. Franklin Cty. Bd. of Revision
2016 Ohio 4554 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2016)
Cruz v. Testa (Slip Opinion)
2015 Ohio 3292 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2015)
NDHMD, Inc. v. Cuyahoga Cty. Bd. of Revision
2015 Ohio 174 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2015)
Dugan v. Franklin Cty. Bd. of Revision
2014 Ohio 4491 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
N.M.J., Inc. v. Akron City School Dist. Bd. of Edn.
2014 Ohio 4459 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
Columbus City School Bd. of Edn. v. Franklin Cty. Bd. of Revision
2014 Ohio 4360 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
Piepho v. Franklin Cty. Bd. of Revision
2014 Ohio 2908 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2014 Ohio 853, 9 N.E.3d 920, 139 Ohio St. 3d 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hilliard-city-schools-board-of-education-v-franklin-county-board-of-ohio-2014.