Scribante v. Douglas County Board of Equalization

588 N.W.2d 190, 8 Neb. Ct. App. 25
CourtNebraska Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 12, 1998
DocketA-98-051
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 588 N.W.2d 190 (Scribante v. Douglas County Board of Equalization) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scribante v. Douglas County Board of Equalization, 588 N.W.2d 190, 8 Neb. Ct. App. 25 (Neb. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

Sievers, Judge.

The Douglas County Board of Equalization (Board) appeals the order of the Nebraska Tax Equalization and Review Commission (Commission) which reversed the Board’s 1997 valuation of $1,305,000 for a home located in Omaha, Nebraska, and set its value for property tax purposes at $741,400.

BACKGROUND

A.J. Scribante and Lynda H. Scribante own property located at 401 Fairacres Road in Omaha. The subject property, a two-story brick home with over 6,000 square feet of finished living area plus a 210-foot by 230-foot lot, was purchased by the *27 Scribantes in 1991 for $1,293,000. A.J. Scribante testified that the house had not been remodeled since that time.

It is important to recount the events for the 1996 tax year, the tax year prior to that involved in this appeal. For the 1996 tax year, the Board valued the Scribantes’ property at $1.1 million. The Scribantes filed a protest with the Board alleging that the assessed valuation of their property exceeded the valuation of other similar property in the neighborhood. The Scribantes argued that there was a lack of “proportionate and uniform valuation regarding this property, which results in a lack of uniformity and equality required by law.” The Scribantes requested that the proposed valuation of $1.1 million be reduced to $619,000. The Board denied the protest, and the Scribantes appealed to the Commission.

After trial, the Commission released its findings and orders about the 1996 tax year, dated April 15, 1997. The Commission decided that the Board’s action in denying the Scribantes’ protest was arbitrary and unreasonable. The Commission concluded that the evidence established that “in the Fairacres Subdivision, there is a lack of uniformity and proportionality. . . . [T]hat this lack of uniformity and proportionality arises from the fact that the County reappraises property in the Subdivision when the property is sold, when a building permit is issued, or when the State intervenes.” The Commission reduced the valuation of the Scribantes’ home from $1.1 million to $875,256. The Board did not appeal this ruling.

During the hearing on the 1996 protest, the Board introduced testimony that the Fairacres subdivision would be reappraised in its entirety in 1997. The Commission noted, “If such a reappraisal is undertaken, the lack of uniformity and proportionality will be addressed.”

For the 1997 tax year, the county assessor increased the value of the Scribantes’ property to $1,305,000. Using the Commission’s 1996 valuation of $875,256 for the property, this constituted a 49-percent increase in value in 1 year. The Scribantes once again filed a protest with the Board. The Board approved the $1,305,000 valuation, and the Scribantes timely appealed to the Commission, asking that the valuation be reduced to $687,000.

*28 A hearing was held before the Commission on December 15, 1997. The Scribantes argued that there was still gross inequality in the Fairacres neighborhood with respect to valuation of property for tax purposes. The Scribantes alleged that property sold within the last 10 years or which had been substantially remodeled was uniformly valued at a much higher rate on a per-square-foot basis than other property in the neighborhood. A.J. Scribante testified that his protest was not a challenge to the Board’s finding of an increased market value of his home, but, rather, that his only concern was whether his property was valued in “an equal manner as the other properties” in the Fairacres neighborhood.

Scribantes ’ Evidence.

Matthew Wilson, a licensed real estate appraiser, testified on behalf of the Scribantes as an expert witness, and he provided five methods of valuing the Scribantes’ home. Wilson testified that in an attempt to determine whether property in Fairacres was valued uniformly, he chose 32 houses in the subdivision which he deemed to be comparable to the subject property. Wilson’s basis for choosing the 32 properties was “[pjroximity to the subject and two-story and quality of construction.” Wilson compared the assessed value of each property as of January 1, 1996, with the value of that same property on January 1, 1997, and if it changed, he calculated the percentage of increase or decrease in value. Wilson’s findings, included in exhibit 7 and titled “1997 Assessed Value Changes in Fairacres - Omaha,” are quoted below:

Address Percentage Change Comments

[ 1] 525 Fairacres -13%

[ 2] 6614 Underwood 0%

[ 3] 206 Fairacres 0%

[ 4] 6610 Davenport 0%

[ 5] 658 No. 63rd 0%

[ 6] 6500 Prairie +4%

[ 7] 220 Fairacres +4%

[ 8] 6435 Prairie +6%

[ 9] 426 Fairacres +7%

[ 10] 6451 Cuming +7%

*29 [ 11] 6611 Underwood +10%

[ 12] 6469 Cuming +10%

[ 13] 6300 Dodge +10%

[ 14] 6445 Prairie +11%

[ 15] 215 Fairacres +11%

[ 16] 650 No. 63rd +11%

[ 17] 702 Hackberry +12%

[ 18] 717 Hackberry +12%

[ 19] 423 Fairacres +12%

[ 20] 726 Hackberry +13%

[ 21] 412 No. Elmwood +13%

[ 22] 652 No. 66th +14%

[ 23] 407 No. Elmwood +14%

[ 24] 106 No. 67th +14%

[ 25] 402 Fairacres +15%

[ 26] 425 Fairacres +15%

[ 27] 6545 Prairie +15%

[ 28] 216 Fairacres +15%

[ 29] 400 No. Elmwood +16%

[ 30] 604 No. 65th +26%

[ 31] 401 No. Elmwood +33%

[ 32] 710 Hackberry +39%

401 Fairacres +49% [Subject property]

6450 Prairie +140% [Sale to Theisen]

The average increase for the 32 properties (excluding the subject property and the sale to Theisen) is 11%. The sale to W. Theisen is excluded because it appears to have increased due to the recent sale. The subject is excluded to find the average increase for the other property in the neighborhood.

(Emphasis supplied.)

Wilson testified that he used Douglas County property record cards as his source for the above calculations. Wilson concluded that based on the above percentages, the Fairacres neighborhood had not been “equalized” in 1997, despite the Board’s evidence that the neighborhood had been reappraised.

Wilson also prepared an equalization summary, in evidence as exhibit 5, on 102 two-story homes in Fairacres based on records from the Douglas County assessor’s office. Wilson *30 testified to using two-story homes as his “subclass” in the summary. The information on each piece of property, which varied considerably, included year built, lot size, frontage, lot assessed value, lot assessed value per square foot, house size, house assessed value, and house assessed value per square foot.

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Bluebook (online)
588 N.W.2d 190, 8 Neb. Ct. App. 25, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scribante-v-douglas-county-board-of-equalization-nebctapp-1998.