RNG Properties, Ltd. v. Summit Cty. Bd. of Revision (Slip Opinion)

2014 Ohio 4036, 19 N.E.3d 906, 140 Ohio St. 3d 455
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 23, 2014
Docket2013-0028
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 2014 Ohio 4036 (RNG Properties, Ltd. v. Summit Cty. Bd. of Revision (Slip Opinion)) 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
RNG Properties, Ltd. v. Summit Cty. Bd. of Revision (Slip Opinion), 2014 Ohio 4036, 19 N.E.3d 906, 140 Ohio St. 3d 455 (Ohio 2014).

Opinions

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} This real-property-valuation case addresses whether the Board of Tax Appeals (“BTA”) acted reasonably and lawfully when it rejected a contractual allocation of a 2010 asset purchase price to determine property values for tax [456]*456year 2008. Appellant, RNG Properties, Ltd., the owner-taxpayer, sold a large industrial-warehouse business in 2010, including several parcels of Akron-area real estate, and urged the BTA to adopt the contractual allocation of the purchase price to certain properties; that allocation would then become the basis for the valuation of those parcels. The BTA, however, rejected the allocation, holding that the proffered documents showed that the 2010 sale included some but not all of the parcels at issue as well as parcels that were not at issue. BTA Nos. 2009-Q-3565, 2009-Q-4002, 2009-Q-4056, and 2009-Q-4057, 2012 WL 6823370, *2 (Dec. 11, 2012), fn. 4.

{¶ 2} On appeal, RNG contends that the BTA erred by (1) failing to accept the contractual allocation of purchase price and (2) failing to “allocate[ ] the aggregate purchase price of the various parcels in proportion to each [parcel’s] percentage of the aggregate amount of value as determined by the Summit County Fiscal Officer.” We disagree, and we therefore affirm the decision of the BTA.

The Parcels at Issue and the Board of Revision Proceedings

{¶ 3} For tax year 2008, RNG filed four valuation complaints that challenged the Summit County Fiscal Officer’s valuation of a total of seven parcels, referred to here by street address and parcel numbers.

{¶ 4} • 1779 Marvo Drive: Four parcels (51-09972 through 51-09974 plus 51-09977) improved with six buildings comprising a warehouse-office complex on about 12 acres with 212,065 square feet of industrial warehouse-office space. The fiscal officer’s valuation for tax year 2008 in the aggregate was $3,623,114. RNG first proposed a valuation of $2,969,000. Later, at the hearing before the Summit County Board of Revision (“BOR”), RNG proposed a valuation of $2,797,000.

{¶ 5} • 1738 Marvo Drive: One parcel (51-03928) of 13.0433 acres improved with one warehouse building of 243,424 square feet. The fiscal officer’s valuation for tax year 2008 was $6,372,030. RNG’s requested valuation is $4,868,480.

{¶ 6} • 995 Home Avenue: One parcel (67-57142) of 5.62 acres improved with a warehouse of 137,020 square feet. The fiscal officer’s valuation for tax year 2008 was $1,872,400. RNG first proposed a valuation of $1,090,450 in its complaint. Later, at the BOR hearing, RNG proposed a valuation of $1,225,000.

{¶ 7} • Palmetto Avenue: A single parcel (67-60824) of 4.176 acres; RNG indicates that this complaint has been withdrawn.

{¶ 8} At the BOR hearing, RNG presented owner opinions of value. In each case, the owner’s opinion calculates value using an income approach and a sales-comparison approach and reconciles those numbers to arrive at the proposed values indicated above.

[457]*457{¶ 9} In each case, Ron Goson supplied an affidavit asserting his status as owner of the property and verifying the information in the owner’s opinion of value. (Actually, of course, RNG was the owner, but Goson signed the 2010 purchase agreement as “sole member” of RNG.) In each case, no live testimony was offered.

{¶ 10} The BOR rejected RNG’s requests for decreased valuations for lack of probative evidence. RNG appealed to the BTA.

The BTA Appeal: RNG Asks for Use of an Allocated Sale Price

{¶ 11} At the BTA, the parties waived hearing and submitted the case on the BOR record, but RNG supplemented the record with documentation of a 2010 sale of properties in the context of a sale of the warehousing business. RNG says that the parties have agreed to the supplement, but there was no formal stipulation, and the Springfield Local School District Board of Education by letter lodged an objection to new evidence pursuant to R.C. 5715.19(G). In this appeal, however, the appellees have not enunciated any objection to the new evidence being considered, and it is self-evident that the statutory objection does not apply because the evidence presented at the BTA did not exist at the time of the BOR hearing.

{¶ 12} RNG submitted what it called “[pjertinent pages” of a 2010 Asset Purchase Agreement (“APA”), a HUD settlement-statement form, and two warranty deeds with property descriptions attached. More specifically, RNG pointed to a section of the APA that required the purchaser to deliver an allocation of the total contract price ($14,825,000 with contractual adjustments) to RNG before closing. That provision specified that the allocation should include “$8,425,000 for the Marvo Drive real estate assets and $1,400,000 for the Home Avenue real estate assets allocated to RNG,” for a total real-estate allocation of $9,825,000. The provision then states that the allocation must satisfy requirements of federal tax law.

{¶ 13} Consistent with the APA allocation, the settlement statement set forth a “contract sales price” of $9,825,000, but did not specify the properties included in the transfer.

{¶ 14} RNG asked the BTA to allocate $8,425,000 to the five Marvo Drive parcels (four of them listed on the complaint for 1779 Marvo; one listed on the complaint for 1738 Marvo) and $1,400,000 to “the Home Avenue parcel,” 67-57142 (mentioned in the 995 Home Avenue complaint). RNG did not discuss the additional Marvo Drive parcel listed in the supplemental documentation, parcel 51-09975, which was part of the sale but which was not the subject of a valuation complaint. RNG also failed to address the fact that the purchase agreement lists [458]*458a different Home Avenue parcel, with the street address 989 rather than 995, as part of the property transferred under the agreement.

{¶ 15} In its decision issued on December 11, 2012, the BTA noted that the best evidence of value was a recent, arm’s-length sale, but concluded that RNG had presented “insufficient evidence of the sale * * * to allow us to use it as a basis for our determinations of value.” 2012 WL 6823370, *2. The BTA then proceeded to evaluate the evidence presented to the BOR and concluded that it merited little weight because it was not clear who had prepared the valuations and because Goson’s qualifications were unclear. Id. Accordingly, the BTA found that the values determined by the fiscal officer and the BOR should be retained. Id. at *3.

{¶ 16} RNG has appealed and restricts its argument to the claim that the BTA ought to have adopted an allocated sale price as the value of the properties. RNG has supplemented the record in this court with conveyance-fee statements that were not introduced below.

RNG’s Propositions of Law on Appeal

{¶ 17} RNG has advanced three propositions of law as follows:

1. The decision of the Board of Tax Appeals is unreasonable and unlawful as it failed to recognize the recent, arm’s-length sale of the subject properties.
2. The decision of the BTA is unlawful and unreasonable in that it failed to determine an allocation of the sale price to the subject properties.
3. The decision of the BTA is unconstitutional as it failed to use a recent, arm’s-length sale in accordance with R.C. § 5713, et seq.

Standard of Review

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Bluebook (online)
2014 Ohio 4036, 19 N.E.3d 906, 140 Ohio St. 3d 455, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rng-properties-ltd-v-summit-cty-bd-of-revision-slip-opinion-ohio-2014.