In re Appeal of Springfield School District

101 A.3d 835, 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 466
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 24, 2014
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 101 A.3d 835 (In re Appeal of Springfield School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Appeal of Springfield School District, 101 A.3d 835, 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 466 (Pa. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION BY

Judge LEADBETTER.

VMDT Partnership (VMDT) appeals from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County (trial court) that determined the fair market values and the assessed values of VMDT’s properties for the tax years 2012 and 2013.

VMDT argues that the trial court should have assessed its properties based on the 1998 base-year market values, rather than the current market values as of the time of the assessment appeals filed by Springfield Township and the Springfield School District (collectively, School District). In the alternative, VMDT argues that the School District violated the Uniformity Clause of Article VIII, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, Pa. Const, art. VIII, § 1, in selecting its properties for assessment appeals. We conclude that the base-year valuation methodology advocated by VMDT is not supported by the statutory scheme of the Consolidated County Assessment Law, 53 Pa.C.S. §§ 8801-8868,1 that the trial court’s assessments of VMDT’s properties are supported by the evidence accepted as credible, and that VMDT’s uniformity challenge is without merit. Accordingly, we affirm.

I.

In June 2011, VMDT purchased two adjoining commercial properties, tax parcel 42-00-00487-00 (parcel 487) and tax parcel 42-00-07872-00 (parcel 7872), for $11,400,000. Parcel 487, located at 780 Baltimore Pike in Springfield Township, Delaware County, consists of 3.689 acres with a vacant 36,400-square-foot building previously occupied by Rothrock Chevrolet, an automobile dealership. Parcel 7872, located north of Baltimore Pike and east of Woodland Avenue, consists of 3.29 acres and was Rothrock Chevrolet’s parking lot.

For the tax year 2012, parcels 487 and ■ 7872 were assessed at $3,118,530 and $409,451, respectively. The common level ratio (CLR)2 for Delaware County was 67.5% for 2012 and 72% for 2013. Applying the applicable CLRs to the assessed values, the implied fair market value of parcel 487 was $4,620,044 for 2012 ($3,118,-530 -r 67.5%) and $4,331,292 for 2013 ($3,118,530 -i- 72%). The implied fair market value of parcel 7872 was $606,594 for 2012 ($409,451 -s- 67.5%) and $568,682 for 2013 ($409,451 -t- 72%). The two parcels’ combined implied fair market value was $5,226,638 for 2012 and $4,899,974 for 2013.

[839]*839On July 29, 2011, the School District appealed the assessments with the Delaware County Board of Assessment Appeals (Board), alleging that VMDT’s properties should be assessed for the tax year 2012 based on their fair market value of $11,400,000, the purchase price paid by VMDT. VMDT did not appeal the assessments of its properties for the tax year 2012. After a hearing, the Board denied the School District’s appeals and did not change the assessments. The School District appealed the Board’s decisions to the trial court. VMDT then filed a “counterclaim and new matter,” alleging that the Board failed to properly assess its properties by applying the “established [predetermined [r]atio” (EPR) to the 1998 “base year” value,3 and that the properties’ “1998 [b]ase [y]ear [v]alue ... is less than the assessment set by the Board.” VMDT’s Counterclaim and Answer, ¶ 8. B and C; Reproduced Record (R.R.) at 29a-30a and 35a-36a. VMDT further alleged that the School District’s selection of its properties for assessment appeals violated the uniformity requirement.

At de novo hearings held before the trial court, the School District’s real estate appraiser, John B. Rush, testified that using the cost approach and the sales comparison approach, the fair market values of parcels 487 and 7872 as of August 1, 2011 and August 1, 2012 were $7,700,000 and $3,700,000, respectively, with a combined fair market value of $11,400,000. He did not utilize the income approach because he believed it was not reliable. In calculating the fair market values, he assumed that the building on parcel 487 was 40,875 square feet. He testified that if the size of the building was 36,400 square feet, the fair market value of the two parcels would be reduced to $10,900,000.

VMDT’s real estate appraiser, Reaves C. Lukens, Jr., testified that VMDT asked him to estimate the value of VMDT’s properties “as of January 1, 1998, based on its condition now, the market conditions as of that date,” which he characterized as “a retrospective appraisal.” Trial Court’s April 8, 2013 Hearing, Notes of Testimony (N.T.) at 203; R.R. at 847a. He determined that the combined market value of the two parcels as of January 1, 1998 was $3,150,000 and that the market value remained the same “as configured on August 1, 2011, based on market conditions as of January 1, 1998.” Id. at 218; R.R. at 862a.

To rebut Lukens’ testimony, the School District presented the testimony of its real estate appraiser, Vincent Quinn. He disagreed with Lukens’ method of using the 1998 base-year values to assess VMDT’s properties. He found “it hard to believe that in the 2012 time frame ... a seller ... would sell a property under 1998 pric[840]*840ing.” April 9, 2013 Hearing, N.T. at 204; R.R. at 1117a. He also pointed out that Lukens failed to consider seven comparable sales of automobile dealerships after January 1,1998.

The School District’s executive director of operations, Donald Mooney, testified as to the School District’s process of selecting properties for assessment appeals. Mooney reviews interim assessment reports and monthly real estate transfer reports and compares sale prices of real properties to their implied market values (the assessed values divided by the CLR). He selects properties, whose sale prices are $500,000 or greater than the implied market values, for possible assessment appeals. He explained that the $500,000 threshold represents $9000 to $11,000 in additional tax revenue, which justifies the costs of assessment appeals. The School District’s solicitor and appraiser thereafter further review the properties selected by Mooney to determine whether it is worthwhile to pursue assessment appeals. When the School District Board of Directors approves the solicitor’s recommendation, the School District files assessment appeals.

Mooney learned of VMDT’s June 2011 purchase of the properties from the School District’s solicitor and appraiser before he received a monthly real estate transfer report. Because the purchase price of $11,400,000 exceeded the combined implied fair market value of $5,226,638 by more than $6,000,000, Mooney reviewed VMDT’s properties for possible assessment appeals. After further review by the School District’s solicitor and appraiser, all nine members of the School District Board of Directors approved the appeals. Mooney performed a “follow-up analysis” of VMDT’s properties after he received a monthly transfer report. April 9, 2013 Hearing, N.T. at 12; R.R. at 924a. The member of the School District Board of Directors, Domenic Bentivegna, corroborated Mooney’s testimony.

The trial court rejected VMDT’s argument that its properties should be assessed for the tax year 2012 based on the 1998 base-year market values. The court concluded that Section 8854(a)(9)(i) of the Consolidated County Assessment Law, as amended, 53 Pa.C.S. § 8854(a)(9)(i), relied on by VMDT, does not support such valuation methodology. Section 8854(a)(9)(i) provides that “[njothing in this subsection shall ...

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Bluebook (online)
101 A.3d 835, 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-appeal-of-springfield-school-district-pacommwct-2014.